





9 N< 




/ . 



NORTH AMERICA. 




ANTHONY TROLLOPE, 

AUTHOP. OK 

'THE WKST INDIES AND THE SPANISH MAIN," "THE THREE CLERKS,' 

"THE STRUGGLES OF BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON," 

"DOCTOR TIIORNE," "FRAMLEY PARSONAGE," 

"ORLEY FARM," &c., &c., &c. 



NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

1863. 



N 



^ nJi 



ByTransftff 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER L 

I S T E O D C C 1 1 O K. 



PAGK 

Introduction 1 

CHAPTER II. 

KE^rPOET — EHODE ISL.VXD. 

Boston — Proposed Termination of the War — Command of the Missis- 
sippi — Newport — Rhode Island 15 

CHAPTER III. 

MAIXE, SEW HA3IPSHIBE, AXD TEBMOyT. 

Railway Cars — Portland — The White Mountains — American Hotels — 
New Hampshire 23 

CHAPTER IV. 

L O W E E , G A y A D A. 

Canada — Quebec — Roman Catholics^Mentnaiirency — Lower Canada 
— Canadian Mails — The Owl's Head — Canadian Inn — Canada Grand 
Trunk RaUwav— Montreal ..T. .^ 43 

CHAPTER y. 

UPPEB CAXADA. 

Seat of Government for the Canadas — Ottawa — Lumbering — Free and 
Equal — Toronto CO 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE CON"SEXIOX OF THE CAXADAS WITH GEEAT BEITAnr. 

British Troops in Canada — Colonial Dependence — Federal Government 
— "Why does Great Britain keep her Colonies ? — What shall Canada 
do with herself? 73 

CHAPTER ^1L 

XIAGABA. 

Niagara 83 

CHAPTER Vni. 

K O B T H AND WEST. 

Division of the States — Population — General Fremont — The Northern 
Armv— General Maclellan— The Morrill Tariff 99 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 

PAGE 

Railway Beds — Railway Luggage — Detroit — Grand Haven — Milwaukee 
— American Cities — American Laborers — Frontier Men — Soldiers at 
Milwaukee — Settlement of New Lands— The Frontier Man Ill 

CHAPTER X. 

THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 

Soldiers from Minnesota — Boats on the Mississippi — The Upper Missis- 
sippi — St. Paul — St. Anthony — Wood-cutters on the Mississippi 12D 

CHAPTER XL 

CERES AMERICANA. 

English Vegetables — Price of Corn — Breadstuffs at Buffalo — Chicago — 
An Illinois Prairie — American Patriotism — Chicago — Cleveland — 
Buflfalo — Grain Elevators 145 

CHAPTER XII. 

BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 

Trenton Falls— West Point 162 

CHAPTER XIII. 

AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. 

An Apology for the War , 172 

CHAPTER XIV. 

NEW YORK. 

New York — American Physiognomy — Omnibuses — American Women 
— American Men — Institutions of New York — New York Schools — 
New York — The Central Park — Railways 182 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 

Constitutions of different States — The Constitution of New York — The 
Legislature of New York — The Executive — Absence of Responsibility 
— State Legislatures 209 

CHAPTER XVI. 

BOSTON. 

Connecticut — Mr. Emerson — American Lectures — Mr. Everett — Mr. 
Wendell Phillips — Lexington and Concord — The Boston^ibrary — 
Social Life in Boston — Anger against England— Masoned Slidell 
— Mr. Seward 217 

CHAPTER XVII. 

CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. 

Harvard College — Cambridge — Lowell 240 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. 

i'AQE 

Eights of Women — Mrs. Dall — Women's Work — Condition of Women 
— Political liights of Women 253 

CHAPTER XIX. 

EDUCATION AND RELIGION, 

American Insolence — Cost of Education — Education — Educational En- 
actments — Schools in Boston — Sale of Books in Railway Cars — Intel- 
ligence of the People — Religion 2G3 

CHAPTER XX. 

FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 

Mr. Buchanan — The Crittenden Compromise — What Mr. Lincoln 
should have done — Slidell and Mason — Probability of War witli En- 
gland — Philadelphia — Crossing the Susquehanna — Maryland — Balti- 
more 278 

CHAPTER XXI. 

WASHINGTON. 

Washington — The Capitol — Pennsylvania Avenue — The Post-Office — 
The Patent Office — President's Square— The Washington Obelisk — 
Arlington Heights — General Washington — Mount Vernon — Alexan- 
dria — Members of the Cabinet — Society in Washington 300 

CHAPTER XXII. 

CONGRESS. 

The House of Representatives — The Senate — Messrs. Slidell and Mason 
— Captain Wilkes — Mr. Charles Sumner — International law — The 
Senate — The President's Ministers — Congress and the Army 324 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 

Causes of the War— Abolition 338 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 

Leaving Washington — Profit made on the purchase of Ships — The Cap- 
ital of Pennsylvania — Railway Accident — Pittsburg — Cincinnati — 
Kentucky — Lexington — Kentucky Slaves — Daniel Boone — River dif- 
ficulties 358 

CHAPTER XXV. 

MISSOURI. 

St. Louis — The War — ^Political dishonesty — Martial Law — Benton Bar- 
racks—The Army at Rolla— The Men of the West 379 



VI COXTKNTS. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

CAIRO AND CAMP MOOD. 

PAGE 

Cairo — The Gim-boats — Mortar-boats — The banks of the Oliio — Leav- 
ing Cairo — Kentucky — Our journey to Camp Wood — American Court- 
esy — The Green liiver — Camp Wood — German Abolitionists 3QG 

CHAPTER XXVn. 

TUB ARMY OF THE NORTH. 

Pay of the Soldiers — Causes for Enlistment — Military Passes — The 
Army of t!ie Potomac — Virginian Farmers — Health of the Army — 
State of the Army — Cost of the Army — Absence of Military Disci- 
pline — General qualities of American Soldiers — Courage of the Amer- 
ican Soldiers — The Van Wyck Report — Army and Navy Contracts... 415 

CHAPTER XXVHI. 

BACK TO BOSTON. 

Effect of American Railroads — Loafing — Nature of Political Opinion in 
the States — Baltimore — State of Opinion in Maryland — Dirt — Mr. 
Seward — Successes of the Northern Army — Northern Ambition — The 
probable Fate of the South — Return to Boston — What Boston has 
done 441 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The Articles of Confederation — The Constitution — The Senate — Repre- 
sentation — Political corruption — Exclusion of Ministers from Con- 
gress — Taxation — Suspension of the privilege of the Writ of Habeas 
Corpus — Election of the President — Miscellaneous Articles of the Con- 
stitution — Success of the Constitution — Amendments necessary — Mode 
of choosing a President — Instructions to Senators 450 

CHAPTER XXX. 

THE GOVERNMENT. 

Absence of Foreign Relations — Power of the President — The Presi- 
dent's Ministers — English and American Ministers — Position of the 
President's Ministers — Committees of the Two Houses — Executive 
Powers of the Senate — Great Men needed for the Government 495 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE LAW COURTS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

As to the purity of the Bench — Legal Proceedings in the United States 
— Position of Lawyers in the States — Distinct Position of Federal and 
State Tril)unals — Jurisdiction of the National Courts — The Supreme 
Court at Washington — Appointment of the States Judges — Low Con- 
dition of the Bench 510 



CONTEXTS. Vll 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

TlIK FINANCIAL POSITION. 

I'AGE 

Objects for which the Money lias been Spent — Will the United States 
Tny? — The Excise Dutie.s — Direct Taxation — Amount of the Debt 
— immediate Pressure — Can the Burden be borne? 520 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE POST-OFFICE. 

Deficiencies in the Post-Ofnce System — Amount of Correspondence — 
Post-Office difficulties — Post-Office Revenue — The Franking Privilege 
— Rotation of Office — Use of Patronage — Post-Office Mileage — Post- 
Office Extravagance 537 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

AMERICAN HOTELS. 

Hotels 552 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

LITERATURE. 

Literature 5G5 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

CONCLUSION. 

Conclusion 577 



APPENDICES. 

A. Declaration of iNDEPtNDENCE G03 

B. Articles of Confederation G06 

C. Constitution of the United States GI3 




( 

NORTH AM>ERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 



It has been the ambition of my literary life to write a book 
about the United States, and I had made u]) my mind to visit 
the country with this object before the intestine troubles of the 
United States Government had commenced. I have not al- 
lowed the division among the States and the breaking out of 
civil war to interfere with my intention ; but I should not pur- 
posely have chosen this period either for my book or for my 
visit. I say so much, in order that it may not be supposed that 
it is my special purpose to write an account of the struggle as 
far as it has yet been carried. My wish is to describe as well 
as I can the present social and political state of the country. 
This I should have attempted, with more personal satisfaction 
in the work, had there been no disruption between the N'orth 
and South ; but I have not allowed that disruption to deter me 
from an object which, if it were delayed, might probably never 
be carried out. I am therefore forced to take the subject in its 
present condition, and being so forced I must write of the war, 
of the causes which have led to it, and of its probable termina- 
tion. Bat I wish it to be understood that it was not my se- 
lected task to do so, and is not now my primary object. 

Thirty years ago my mother wrote a book about the Ameri- 
cans, to which I believe I may allude as a well known and suc- 
cessful work without being guilty of any undue family conceit. 
That was essentially a woman's book. She saw with a woman's 
keen eye, and described with a Avoman's light but graphic pen, 
the social defects and absurdities which our near relatives had 
adopted into their domestic life. All that she told was worth 
the telling, and the telling, if done successfully, was sure to pro- 
duce a good result. I am satisfied that it did so. But she did 
not regard it as a part of her work to dilate on the nature and 
operation of those political arrangements which had produced 
the social absurdities which she saw, or to explain that though 
such absurdities were the natural result of those arrangements 

A 



2 NORTH AMERICA. 

in their newness, the defects would certainly pass away, while 
the political arrangements, if good, would remain. Such a work 
is fitter for a man than for a woman. I am very far from think- 
ing that it is a task which I can perform with satisfaction either 
to myself or to others. It is a work which some man will do 
who has earned a right by education, study, and success to rank 
himself among the political sages of his age. But I may per- 
haps be able to add something to the familiarity of Englishmen 
with Americans. The writings which have been most popular 
in England on the subject of the United States have hitherto 
dealt chiefly with social details ; and though in most cases true 
and useful, have created laughter on one side of the Atlantic, 
and soreness on the other. If I could do anything to mitigate 
the soreness, if I could in any small degree add to the good feel- 
ing which should exist between two nations which ought to love 
each other so well, and which do hang upon each other so con- 
stantly, I should think that I had cause to be proud of my Avork. 
But it is very hard to write about any country a book that 
does not represent the country described in a more or less ri- 
diculous point of view. It is hard at least to do so in such a 
book as I must write. A De Tocqueville may do it. It may 
be done by any philosophico-political or politico-statistical, or 
statistico-scientitic writer ; but it can hardly be done by a man 
who professes to use a light pen, and to manufacture his article 
for the use of general readers. Such a writer may tell all that 
he sees of the beautiful ; but he must also tell, if not all that he 
sees of the ludicrous, at any rate the most piquant part of it. 
How to do this without being offensive is the problem which a 
man with such a task before him has to solve. His first duty 
is owed to his readers, and consists mainly in this : that he 
shall tell the truth, and shall so tell that truth that what he has 
written may be readable. But a second duty is due to those 
of whom he writes ; and he does not perform that duty Avell if 
he gives offence to those, as to whom, on the summing up of 
the whole evidence for and against them in his own mind, he 
intends to give a favourable verdict. There are of course those 
against whom a writer does not intend to give a favourable 
verdict; — people and places whom he desires to describe on 
the peril of his own judgment, as bad, ill-educated, ugly, and 
odious. In such cases his course is straightforward enough. 
His judgment may be in great peril, but his volume or chapter 
will be easily written. Ridicule and censure run glibly from 
the pen, and form, themselves into sharp paragraphs which are 
pleasant to the reader. Whereas eulogy is commonly dull, and 



INTEODUCTION. 3 

too frequently sounds as though it were false. There is much 
difficulty in expressing a verdict which is intended to be favour- 
able ; but which, though favourable, shall not be falsely eulogist- 
ic ; and though true, not offensive. 

Who has ever travelled in foreign countries without meeting 
excellent stories against the citizens of such countries ? And 
how few can travel without hearing such stories against them- 
selves ? It is impossible for me to avoid telling of a very ex- 
cellent gentleman whom I met before I had been in the United 
States a week, and who asked me whether lords in England 
ever spoke to men who were not lords. Nor can I omit the 
opening address of another gentleman to my wife. " You like 
our institutions, ma'am ?" " Yes, indeed," said my Avife, — not 
with all that eagerness of assent which the occasion perhaps re- 
quired. "Ah," said he, "I never yet met the down-trodden 
subject of a despot who did not hug his chains." The first 
gentleman was certainly somewhat ignorant of our customs, 
and tlie second was rather abrupt in his condemnation of the 
political principles of a person whom he only first saw at that 
moment. It comes to me in the way of my trade to repeat 
such incidents ; but I can tell stories which are quite as good 
against Englishmen. As for instance, when I was tapped on 
the back in one of the galleries of Florence by a countryman 
of mine, and asked to show him where stood the medical Venus. 
Nor is anything that one can say of the inconveniences attend- 
ant upon travel in the United States to be beaten by what for- 
eigners might truly say of us. I shall never forget the look of 
a Frenchman whom I found on a wet afternoon in the best inn 
of a provincial town in the west of England. He was seated 
on- a horsehair-covered chair in the middle of a small dingy ill- 
furnished private sitting-room. No eloquence of mine could 
make intelligible to a Frenchman or an American the utter 
desolation of such an apartment. The world as then seen by 
that Frenchman offered him solace of no description. The air 
without Avas heavy, dull, and thick. The street beyond the 
window was dark and narrow. The room contained mahog- 
any chairs covered with horsehair, a mahogany table ricketty 
in its legs, and a mahogany sideboard ornamented with invert- 
ed glasses and old cruet-stands. The Frenchman had come to 
the house for shelter and food, and had been asked whether he 
was commercial. Whereupon he shook his head. "Did he 
want a sitting-room ?" Yes, he did. " He was a leetle tired 
and vanted to sect." Whereupon he was presumed to have 
ordered a private room, and was shown up to the Eden I have 



NORTH AMERICA. 



described. I found him there at death's door. Nothing that 
I can say with reference to the social habits of the Americans 
can tell more against them than the story of that Frenchman's 
fate tells against those of our country. 

From which remarks I would wish to be understood as dep- 
recating offence from my American friends, if in the course of 
my book should be found aught which may seem to argue 
against the excellence of their institutions, and the grace of 
their social life. Of this at any rate I can assure them in sober 
earnestness that I admire what they have done in the Avorld 
and for the world with a true and hearty admiration ; and that 
whether or no all their institutions be at present excellent, and 
their social life all graceful, my wishes are that they should be 
so, and my convictions are that that improvement will come for 
which there may perhaps even yet be some little room. 

And now touching this war Avhich had broken out between 
the North and South before I left England. I would wish to 
explain what my feelings Avere ; or rather what I believe the 
general feelings of England to have been, before I found myself 
among the people by whom it was being waged. It is very 
difficult for the people of any one nation to realize the political 
relations of another, and to chew the cud and digest the bear- 
ings of those external politics. But it is unjust in the one to 
decide upon the political aspirations and doings of that other 
without such understanding. Constantly as the name of France 
is in our mouth, comparatively few Englishmen understand the 
way in Avhich France is governed ; — that is, how far absolute 
despotism prevails, and how far the power of the one ruler is 
tempered, or, as it may be, hampered by the voices and influ- 
ence of others. And as regards England, how seldom is it that 
in common society a foreigner is met who comprehends the na- 
ture of her political arrangements ! To a Frenchman, — I do 
not of course include great men who have made the subject a 
study, — but to the ordinary intelligent Frenchman the thing is 
altogether incomprehensible. Language, it may be said, "has 
much to do with that. But an American speaks English ; and 
how often is an American met, who has combined in his mind 
the idea of a monarch so called, with that of a republic, proper- 
ly so named ; — a combination of ideas which I take to be neces- 
sary to the understanding of English politics? The gentleman 
who scorned my wife for hugging her chains had certainly not 
done so, and yet he conceived that he had studied the subject. 
The matter is one most difficult of comprehension. How many 
Englishmen have failed to understand accurately their own 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

constitution, or the true bearing of their own politics ! But 
when this knowledge has been attained, it has generally been 
filtered into the mind slowly, and has come from the uncon- 
scious study of many years. An Englishman handles a news- 
paper for a quarter of an hour daily, and daily exchanges some 
few words in politics with those around him, till drop by drop 
the pleasant springs of his liberty creep into his mind and water 
his heart ; and thus, earlier or later in life according to the na- 
ture of his intelligence, he understands why it is that he is at 
all points a free man. But if this be so of our own politics ; if 
it be so rare a thing to find a foreigner who understands them 
in all their niceties, why is it that we are so confident in our 
remarks on all the niceties of those of other nations ? 

I hope that I may not be misunderstood as saying that we 
should not discuss foreign politics in our press, our parliament, 
our public meetings, or our private houses. No man could be 
mad enough to preach such a doctrine. As regards our Par- 
liament, that is probably the best British school of foreign pol- 
itics, seeing that the subject is not there often taken up by men 
who are absolutely ignorant, and that mistakes when made are 
subject to a correction which is both rough and ready. The 
press, though very liable to error, labours hard at its vocation 
in teaching foreign politics, and spares no expense in letting in 
daylight. If the light let in be sometimes moonshine, excuse 
may easily be made. Where so much is attempted, there must 
necessarily be some failure. But even the moonshine does 
good, if it be not ofiensive moonshine. What I would depre- 
cate is, that aptness at reproach which we assume ; — the readi- 
ness with scorn, the quiet words of insult, the instant judgment 
and condemnation with which we are so inclined to visit, not 
the great outward acts, but the smaller inward politics of our 
neighbours. 

And do others spare us, will be the instant reply of all who 
may read this. In my counter reply I make bold to place my- 
self and my country on very high ground, and to say that we, 
the older and therefore more experienced people as regards the 
United States, and the better governed as regards France, and 
the stronger as regards all the world beyond, should not throw 
mud again even though mud be thrown at us. I yield the 
path to a small chimney-sweeper as readily as to a lady ; and 
forbear from an interchange of courtesies with a Billingsgate 
heroine, even though at heart I may have a proud conscious- 
ness that I should not altogether go to the wall in such an en- 
counter. 



6 NOETH AMERICA. 

I left England in August last — August 1861. At that time, 
and for some months previous, I think that the general English 
feeling on the American question Avas as follows. " This wide- 
spread nationality of the United States, with its enormous terri- 
torial possessions and increasing population, has fallen asunder, 
torn to pieces by the weight of its own discordant parts, — ao 
a congregation when its size has become unwieldy will sepa- 
rate, and reform itself into two wholesome wholes. It is well 
that this should be so, for the people are not homogeneous, as 
a people should be who are called to live together as one na- 
tion. They have attempted to combine free-soil sentiments 
with the practice of slavery, and to make these two antago- 
nists live together in peace and unity imder the same roof; but, 
as we have long expected, they have failed. Now has come 
the period for separation ; and if the people would only see 
this, and act in accordance with the circumstances which Prov- 
idence and the inevitable hand of the world's ruler has pre- 
pared for them, all would be well. But they will not do this. 
They will go to war with each other. The South will make 
her demands for secession with an arrogance and instant press- 
ure which exasperates the North ; and the North, forgetting 
that an equable temper in such matters is the most powerful 
of all weapons, will not recognize the strength of its own posi- 
tion. It allows itself to be exasperated, and goes to war for 
that which if regained would only be injurious to it. Thus 
millions on millions sterling Avill be spent. A heavy debt will 
be incurred ; and the North, which divided from the South 
might take its place among the greatest of nations, will throw 
itself back for half a century, and perhaps injure the splendour 
of its ultimate prospects. If only they would be Avise, throw 
down their arms, and agree to part ! But they Avill not." 

This was, I think, the general opinion when I left England. 
It would not, however, be necessary to go back many months 
to reach the time when Enghshmen were saying hoAv impossi- 
ble it was that so great a national power should ignore its own 
greatness, and destroy its own power by an internecine separa- 
tion. But in August last all that had gone by, and we in En- 
gland had realized the probability of actual secession. 

To these feelings on the subject may be added another, 
which w^as natural enough though perhaps not noble. " These 
western cocks have crowed loudly," we said, " too loudly for 
the comfort of those who live after all at no such great distance 
from them. It is well that their combs should be clipped. 
Cocks who crow so very loudly are a nuisance. It might have 



INTEODUCTION. 7 

gone so far that the clipping would become a work necessarily 
to be done from without. But it is ten times better for all 
parties that it should be done from within ; and as the cocks 
are now clipping their own combs, in God's name let them do 
it and the whole world will be the quieter." That, I say, was 
not a very noble idea ; but it was natural enough, and certain- 
ly has done somewhat in mitigating that grief which the hor- 
rors of civil war and the want of cotton have caused to us in 
England. 

Such certainly had been my belief as to the coimtry. I speak 
here of my opinion as to the ultimate success of secession and 
the folly of the war, — repudiating any concurrence of my own 
in the ignoble but natural sentiment alluded to in the last par- 
agraph. I certainly did think that the Northern States, if wise, 
would have let the Southern States go. I had blamed Buchan- 
an as a traitor for allowing the germ of secession to make any 
growth ; — and as I thoug-ht him a traitor then, so do I think 
him a traitor now. But I had also blamed Lincoln, or rather 
the government of which Mr. Lincoln in this matter is no more 
than the exponent, for his eiforts to avoid that which is inevi- 
table. Li this I think that I — ov as I believe I may say we, we 
Englishmen — were wrong. I do not see how the North, treat- 
ed as it was and had been, could have submitted to secession 
without resistance. We all remember what Shakespere says 
of the great armies which were led out to fight for a piece of 
ground not large enough to cover the bodies of those who 
would be slain in the battle ; but I do not remember that 
Shakespere says that the battle was on this account necessarily 
unreasonable. It is the old point of honour, which, till it had 
been made absurd by certain changes of circumstances, was al- 
ways grand and usually beneficent. These changes of circum- 
stances have altered the manner in which appeal may be made, 
but have not altered the point of honour. Had the Southern 
States sought to obtain secession by constitutional means, they 
might or might not have been successful; but if successful 
there would have been no war. . I do not mean to brand all the 
Southern States Vvith treason, nor do I intend to say that hav- 
ing secession at heart they could have obtained it by constitu- 
tional means. But I do intend to say that acting as they did, 
demanding, secession not constitutionally but in opposition to 
the constitution, taking upon themselves the right of breaking 
up a nationality of whicli they formed only a part, and doing 
that without consent of the other part, opposition from the 
Korth^and war was an inevitable consequence. 



8 NOETH AMEEICA. 

It is, I think, only necessary to look back to the revolution 
by which the United States separated themselves from England 
to see this. There is hardly to be met, here and there, an En- 
glishman who now regrets the loss of the revolted American 
colonies ; — who now thinks that civilization was retarded and 
the world injured by that revolt ; who now conceives that En- 
gland should have expended more treasure and more lives in 
the hope of retaining those colonies. It is agreed that the re- 
volt was a good thing ; that those who were then rebels became 
patriots by success, and that they deserved well of all coming 
ages of mankind. But not the less absolutely necessary was it 
that England should endeavour to hold her own. She was as 
the mother bird when the young bird will fly alone. She suf- 
fered those pangs which Nature calls upon mothers to endure. 

As was the necessity of British opposition to American in- 
dependence, so was the necessity of Northern opposition to 
Southern secession. I do not say that in other respects the 
two cases were parallel. The States separated from us because 
they Avould not endure taxation without representation — in oth- 
er words because they were old enough and big enough to go 
alone. The South is seceding from the North because the two 
are not homogeneous. They have different instincts, different 
appetites, different morals, and a different culture. It is well 
for one man to say that slavery has caused the separation ; and 
for another to say that slavery has not caused it. Each in so 
saying speaks the truth. Slavery has caused it, seeing that 
slavery is the great point on which the two have agreed to dif- 
fer. But slavery has not caused it, seeing that other points of 
difference are to be found in every circumstance and feature of 
the two people. The North and the South must ever be dis- 
similar. In the North labour will always be honourable, and 
because honourable successful. In the South labour has ever 
been servile, — at least in some sense, and therefore dishonour- 
able ; and because dishonourable has not, to itself, been success- 
ful. In the South, I say, labour ever has been dishonourable ; 
and I am driven to confess that I have not hitherto seen a sign 
of any change in the Creator's fiat on this matter. That la- 
bour Avill be honourable all the world over, as years advance 
and the millennium draws nigh, I for one never doubt. 

So much for English opinion about America in August last. 
And now I will venture to say a word or two as to American 
feeling respecting this English opinion at that period. It will 
of course be remembered by all my readers that at the begin- 
ning of the war Lord Russell, who was then in the lower house, 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

declared as Foreign Secretary of State that England would re- 
gard the North and South as belligerents, and would remain 
neutral as to both of them. This declaration gave violent of- 
fence to the North, and has been taken as indicating British 
sympathy with the cause of the seceders. I am not going to 
explain — indeed it would be necessary that I should iirst un- 
derstand — the laws of nations with regard to blockaded ports, 
privateering, ships and men and goods contraband of war, and 
all those semi-nautical semi-military rules and axioms which it 
is necessary that all Attorneys-General and such like should at 
the present moment have at their fingers' end. But it must 
be evident to the most ignorant in those matters, among which 
large crowd I certainly include myself, that it was essentially 
necessary that Lord John Russell should at that time declare 
openly what England intended to do. It was essential that 
our seamen should know where they would be protected and 
where not, and that the course to be taken by England should 
be defined. Reticence in the matter was not within the power 
of the British Government. It behoved the Foreign Secretary 
of State to declare openly that England intended to side either 
with one party or with the other, or else to remain neutral, be- 
tween them. 

I had heard this matter discussed by Americans before I 
left England, and I have of course heard it discussed very fre- 
quently in America. There can be no doubt that the front of 
the ofi*ence given by England to the Northern States was this 
declaration of Lord John Russell's. But it has been always 
made evident to me that the sin did not consist in the fact of 
England's neutrality, — in the fact of her regarding the two 
parties as belligerents, — but in the open declaration made to 
the world by a Secretary of State that she did intend so to re- 
gard them. If another proof were wanting, this would aflbrd 
another proof of the immense weight attached in America to 
all the proceedings and to all the feelings of England on this 
matter. The very anger of the North is a compliment paid 
by the North to England. But not the less is that anger un- 
reasonable. To those in America who understand our consti- 
tution, it must be evident that our Government cannot take 
ofiicial measures without a public avowal of such measures. 
France can do so. Russia can do so. The Government of the 
United States can do so, and could do so even before this rup- 
ture. But the Government of England cannot do so. All 
men connected with the Government in England have felt 
themselves from time to time more or less hampered by the 

A2 



10 NORTH AMERICA. 

necessity of publicity. Our statesmen have been forced to 
fight their battles with the plan of their tactics open before 
their adversaries. But we, in England, are inclined to be- 
lieve, that the general result is good, and that battles so fought 
and so w^on will be fought with the honestest blows, and won 
with the surest results. Reticence in this matter was not pos- 
sible, and Lord John Russell in making the open avowal which 
gave such offence to the Northern States only did that which, 
as a servant of England, England required him to do. 

"What would you in England have thought," a gentleman 
of much weight in Boston said to me, " if when you were in 
trouble in India, we had openly declared that we regarded 
your opponents there as belhgerents on equal terms with your- 
selves ?" I was forced to say that, as far as I could see, there 
was no analogy between the two cases. In India an army had 
mutinied, and that an army composed of a subdued, if not a 
servile race. The analogy would have been fairer had it re- 
ferred to any sympathy shown by us to insurgent negroes. 
But, nevertheless, had the army which mutinied in India been 
in possession of ports and sea-board ; had they held in their 
hands vast commercial cities and great agricultural districts ; 
had they owned ships and been masters of a wide-spread trade, 
America could have done nothing better towards us than have 
remained neutral in such a conflict, and have regarded the par- 
ties as belligerents. The only question is whether she would 
have done so well by us. " But," said my friend in answer to 
all this, " we should not have proclaimed to the world that we 
regarded you and them as standing on an equal footing." 
There again appeared the true gist of the offence. A word 
from England such as that spoken by Lord John Russell was 
of such weight to the South, that the North could not endure 
to have it spoken. I did not say to that gentleman, — but here 
I may say, that had such circumstances arisen as those con- 
jectured, and had America spoken such a word, England 
would not have felt herself called upon to resent it. 

But the fairer analogy lies between Ireland and the South- 
ern States. The monster meetings and O'Connell's triumphs 
are not so long gone by but that many of us can remember the 
first demand for secession made by Ireland, and the line which 
was then taken by American sympathies. It is not too much 
to say that America then believed that Ireland would secure 
secession, and that the great trust of the Irish repealers was in 
the moral aid which she did and would receive from America. 
" But our Government proclaimed no sympathy with Ireland," 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

said my friend. ISTo. The American Government is not call- 
ed on to make such proclamations ; nor had Ireland ever taken 
upon herself the nature and labours of a belhgerent. 

That this anger on the part of the North is imreasonable I 
cannot doubt. That it is unfortunate, grievous, and very bit- 
ter I am quite sure. But I do not think that it is in any de- 
gree surprising. I am inclined to think that did I belong to 
Boston as I do belong to London, I should share in the feel- 
ing, and rave as loudly as all men there have raved against the 
coldness of England. When men have on hand such a job of 
work as the North has now undertaken they are always guided 
by their feelings rather than their reason. What two men 
ever had a quarrel in which each did not think that all the 
world, if just, would espouse his own side of the dispute? 
The North feels that it has been more than loyal to the South, 
and that the South has taken advantage of that over-loyalty 
to betray the North. "We have worked for them, and fought 
for them, and paid for them," says the North. " By our la- 
bour we have raised their indolence to a par with our energy. 
While we have worked like men, we have allowed them to 
talk and bluster. We have Avarmed them in our bosom, and 
now they turn against us and sting us. The world sees that 
this is so. England, above all, must see it, and seeing it should 
speak out her true opinion." The North is hot with such 
thoughts as these, and one cannot wonder that she should be 
angry with her friend, when her friend, Avith an expression of 
certain easy good wishes, bids her fight out her own battles. 
The North .has been unreasonable with England ; — but I be- 
lieve that every reader of this page would have been as un- 
reasonable had that reader been born in Massachusetts. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the dearly beloved friends of my fam- 
ily. My wife and I have lived with Mrs. Jones on terms of 
intimacy which have been quite endearing. Jones has had the 
run of my house with perfect freedom, and in Mrs. Jones' draw- 
ing-room I have always had my own arm-chair, and have been 
regaled with large breakfast-cups of tea, quite as though I were 
at home. But of a sudden Jones and his wife have fallen out, 
and there is for a while in Jones' Hall a cat and dog life that 
may end — in one hardly dare to surmise what calamity. Mrs. 
Jones begs that I will interfere with her husband, and Jones 
entreats the good offices of my wife in moderating the hot tem- 
per of his own. But we know better than that. If we inter- 
fere, the chances are that my dear friends will make it up and 
turn upon us. I grieve beyond measure in a general way at 



12 NOKTH AMERICA. 

the temporary break up of the Jones' Hall happiness. I ex- 
press general wishes that it may be temporary. But as lor 
saying Avhich is right or which is wrong, — as to expressing 
special sympathy on either side in such a quarrel, — it is out of 
the question. " My dear Jones, you must excuse me. Any 
news in the City to-day ? Sugars have fell ; how are teas ?" 
Of course Jones thinks that I'm a brute ; but what can I do ? 

I have been somewhat surprised to find the trouble that has 
been taken by American orators, statesmen, and logicians to 
prove that this secession on the part of the South has been rev- 
olutionary ; — that is to say, that it has been undertaken and 
carried on not in compliance with the Constitution of the United 
States, but in defiance of it. This has been done over and over 
again by some of the greatest men of the North, and has been 
done most successfully. But what then? Of course the move- 
ment has been revolutionary and anti-constitutional. Nobody, 
no single Southerner, can really believe that the Constitution 
of the United States as framed in 1787, or altered since, in- 
tended to give to the separate States the power of seceding as 
they pleased. It is surely useless going through long argu- 
ments to prove this, seeing that it is absolutely proved by the 
absence of any clause giving such licence to the separate States. 
Such licence would have been destructive to the very idea of a 
great nationality. Where would New England have been as 
a part of the United States, if New York, which stretches from 
the Atlantic to the borders of Canada, had been endowed with 
the power of cutting off the six Northern States from the rest 
of the Union ? No one will for a moment doubt that the move- 
ment w^as revolutionary, and yet infinite pains are taken to 
prove a fact that is patent to every one. 

It is revolutionary, but what then? Have the Northern 
States of the American Union taken upon themselves in 1861 
to proclaim their opinion that revolution is a sin? Are they 
geing back to the divine right of any sovereignty ? Are they 
going to tell the world that a nation or a people is bound to 
remain in any political status, because that status is the recog- 
nized form of government under Avhich such a people have 
lived ? Is this to be the doctrine of United States' citizens, — 
of all people ? And is this the doctrine preached now, of all 
times, when the King of Naples and the Italian dukes have just 
been dismissed from their thrones with such enchanting non- 
chalance, because their people have not chosen to keep them ? 
Of course the movement is revolutionary ; and why not ? It 
is agreed now among all men and all nations that any people 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

may change its form of government to any other, if it wills to 
do so, — and if it can do so. 

There are two other points on which these Northern states- 
men and logicians also insist, and these two other points are 
at any rate better worth an argument than tiiat which touches 
the question of revolution. It being settled that secession on 
the part of the Southerners is i-evolution, it is argued, firstly, 
that no occasion for revolution had been given by the North 
to the South; and, secondly, that the South has been dishonest 
in its revolutionary tactics. Men certainly should not raise a 
revolution for nothing ; and it may c-ertainly be declared that 
whatever men do, they should do honestly. 

But in that matter of the cause and ground for revolution, it 
is so very easy for either party to put in a plea that shall be sat- 
isfactory to itself! Mr. and Mrs. Jones each had a separate sto- 
ry. Mr. Jones was sure that the right lay with him : but Mrs. 
Jones was no less sure. No doubt the Nortli had done much 
for the South ; — had earned money for it ; had fed it ; — and had 
moreover in a great measure fostered all its bad habits. It had 
not only been generous to the South, but over-indulgent. But 
also it had continually irritated the South by meddling with 
that which the Southerners believed to be a question absolute- 
ly private to themselves. The matter w^as illustrated to me by 
^ a New Hampshire man who was conversant with black bears. 
At the hotels in the New Hampshire mountains it is customary 
to find black bears chained to poles. These bears are caught 
among the hills, and are thus imprisoned for the amusement of 
the hotel guests. " Them Southerners," said my friend, " are 
jist as one as that 'ere bear. We feeds him and gives him a 
house and his belly is oilers full. But then, jist becase he's a 
black bear, we're oilers a poking him with sticks, and a' course 
the beast is kinder riled. He wants to be back to the mount- 
ains. He wouldn't have his belly filled, but he'd have his own 
way. It's jist so with them Southerners." 

It is of no use proving to any man or to any nation that they 
have got all they should want, if they have not got all that they 
do want. If a servant desires to go, it is of no avail to show 
him that he has all he can desire in his present place. The 
Northerners say that they have given no ofience to the South- 
erners, and that therefore the South is wrong to raise a revolu- 
tion. The very fact that the North is the North, is an oifence 
to the South. As long as Mr. and Mrs. Jones were one in heart 
and one in feeling, having the same hopes and the same joys, it 
was well that they should remain together. But when it is 



14 NOKTtJ AMERICA. 

proved that they cannot so live without tearing out each oth- 
er's eyes, Sir Cresswell Cresswell, the revolutionary institution, 
of domestic life, interferes and separates them. This is the age 
of such separations. I do not wonder that the North should 
use its logic to show that it has received cause of ofience but 
given none. But I do think that such logic is thrown away. 
The matter is not one for argument. The Soutli has thought 
that it can do better without the North than with it ; and if it 
has the power to separate itself, it must be conceded that it has 
the right. 

And then as to tliat question of honesty. Whatever men do 
they certainly should do honestly. Speaking broadly one may 
say that the rule applies to nations as strongly as to individu- 
als, and should be observed in politics as accurately as in other 
matters. We must, however, confess that men who are scru- 
pulous in their private dealings do too constantly drop those 
scruples when they handle public affairs, — and especially when 
they handle them at stirring moments of great national changes. 
The name of Napoleon III. stands fair now before Europe, and 
yet he filched the French empire with a falsehood. The union 
of England and Ireland is a successful fact, but nevertheless it 
can hardly be said that it was honestly achieved. I heartily 
believe that the whole of Texas is improved in every sense by 
having been taken from Mexico and added to the Southern 
States, but I much doubt whether that annexation was accom- 
plished with absolute honesty. We all reverence the name of 
Cavour, but Cavour did not consent to abandon Nice to France 
with clean hands. When men have j^olitical ends to gain they 
regard their opponents as adversaries, and then that old rule 
of war is brought to bear. Deceit or valour, — either may be 
used against a foe. Would it were not so I The rascally rule 
— rascally in reference to all political contests — is becoming- 
less universal than it was. But it still exists with sufficient 
force to be urged as an excuse ; and Avhile it does exist it seems 
almost needless to show that a certain amount of fraud has been 
used by a certain party in a revolution. If the South be ulti- 
mately successful, the fraud of which it may have been guilty 
w:ill be condoned by the world, 
^^he Southern or democratic party of the United States had, 
as all men know, been in power for many years. Either South- 
ern Presidents had been elected, or Northern Presidents with 
Southern politics. The South for many years had had the dis- 
position of military matters, and the power of distributing mil- 
itary appliances of all descriptions. It is now alleged by the 



NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND. 15 

North that a conspiracy had long been hatching in the South 
with the view of giving to the Southern States the power of 
secession whenever they might think tit to secede j and it is 
further alleged that President after President for years back 
has unduly sent the military treasure of the nation away from 
the North down to the South, in order that tlie South might 
be prepared when the day should come. That a President 
with Southern instincts should unduly favour the South, that 
he should strengthen the South, and feel that arms and ammu- 
nition were stored there with better effect tlian they could be 
stored in the North, is very probable. We all understand what 
is the bias of a man's mind, and how strong that bias may be- 
come when the man is not especially scrupulous. But I do not 
believe that any President previous to Buchanan sent military 
materials to the South with the self-acknowledged purpose of 
using them against the Union. That Buchanan did. so, or know- 
ingly allowed this to be done, I .do believe, audi I think that 
Buchanan was a traitor to the country whose servant he was 
and whose pay he received. 

And now, having said so much in the way of introduction, I 
will begin my journey. 



CHAPTER II. 

NEWPORT — RHODE ISLAND. 

We — the we consisting of my wife and myself — left Liver- 
pool for Boston on the 24th August, 1861, in the "Arabia," 
one of Cunard's North American mail packets. We had de- 
termined that my wife should return alone at the beginning of 
winter, when I intended to go to a part of the country in 
which, under the existing circumstances of the war, a lady 
might not feel herself altogether comfortable. I proposed 
staying in America over the winter, and returning in the 
spring ; and this programme I have carried out with sufficient 
exactness. 

The " Arabia" touched at Halifax ; and as the touch extend- 
ed from 11 A.M. to 6 p.m. we had an opportunity of seeing a 
good deal of that colony; — not quite sufficient to'justify me at 
this critical age in writing a chapter of travels in Nova Scotia, 
but enough perhaps to warrant a paragraph. It chanced that 
a cousin of mine was then in command of the troops there, so 
that we saw the fort with all the honours. A dinner on shore 
was, I think, a greater treat to us even than this. We also in- 



16 NORTH AMERICA. 

spected sundry specimens of the gold which is now being found 
for the first time in Nova Scotia, — as to the glory and probable 
profits of which the Nova Scotians seemed to be fully alive. 
But still, I think, the dinner on shore took rank with us as the 
most memorable and. meritorious of all that we did and saw at 
Hahfax. At seven o'clock on the morning but one after that, 
we were landed at Boston. 

At Boston I found friends ready to receive us with open 
arms, though they were friends we had never known before. 
I own that I felt myself burdened with much nervous anxiety 
at my first introduction to men and women in Boston. I knew 
what the feeling there was with reference to England, and I 
knew also how impossible it is for an Englishman to hold his 
tongue and submit to dispraise of England. As for going 
among a people whose whole minds were filled with affairs of 
the war, and saying nothing about the war, — I knew that no 
resolution to such an effect could be carried out. If one could 
not trust oneself to speak, one should have stayed at home in 
England. I will here state that I always did speak out openly 
what I thought and felt, and that though I encountered very 
strong — sometimes almost fierce — opposition, I never was sub- 
jected to any thing that was personally disagreeable to me. 

In Sejotember we did not stay above a w^eek in Boston, hav- 
ing been fairly driven out of it by the mosquitoes. I had been 
told that I should find nobody in Boston whom I cared to see, 
as everybody was habitually out of town during the heat of 
the latter summer and early autumn ; but this was not so. 
The w^ar and attendant turmoils of war had made the season 
of vacation shorter than usual, and most of those for whom I 
asked were back at their posts. I know no place at which an 
Englishman may drop down suddenly among a pleasanter cir- 
cle of acquaintance, or find himself with a more clever set of 
men, than he can do at Boston. I confess that in this respect 
I think that but few towns are at present more fortunately cir- 
cumstanced than the capital of the Bay State, as Massachusetts 
is called, and that very few towns make a better use of their 
advantages. Boston has a right to be proud of what it has 
done for the world of letters. It is proud ; but I have not 
found that its pride was carried too far. 

Boston is not in itself a fine city, but it is a very pleasant 
city. They say that the harbour is very grand and very beau- 
tiful. It certainly is not so fine as that of Portland in a nau- 
tical point of view, and as certainly it is not as beautiful. It 
is the entrance from the sea into Boston of which people say 



NEWPORT — RHODE ISLAND. lY 

SO much ; but I did not think it quite worthy of all I had heard. 
In such matters, however, much depends on the peculiar light 
in which scenery is seen. An evening light is generally the 
best for all landscapes ; and I did not see the entrance to Bos- 
ton harbour by an evening light. It was not the beauty of the 
harbour of which I thought the most ; but of the tea that had 
been sunk there, and of all that came of that successful specu- 
lation. Few towns now standing have a right to be more 
proud of their antecedents than Boston. 

But as I have said, it is not specially interesting to the eye 
— what new town, or even what simply adult town, can be so ? 
There is an Athenseum, and a State Hall, and a fashionable 
street, — Beacon Street, very like Piccadilly as it runs along the 
Green Park, — and there is the Green Park opposite to this Pic- 
cadilly, called Boston Common. Beacon Street and Boston 
Common are very pleasant. Excellent houses there are, and 
large churches, and enormous hotels ; but of such things as 
these a man can write nothing that is worth the reading. The 
traveller who desires to tell his experience of North America 
must write of people rather than of things. 

As I have said, I found myself instantly involved in discus- 
sions on American politics, and the bearing of England upon 
those politics. " What do you think, you in England — what 
do you all believe will be the upshot of this war ?" That was 
the question always asked in those or other words. " Seces- 
sion, certainly," I always said, but not speaking quite with 
that abruptness. " And you believe, then, that the South will 
"beat the North?" I explained that I, personally, had never 
so thought, and that I did not believe that to be the general 
idea. Men's opinions in England, howe\'er, were too divided 
to enable me to say that there was any prevailing conviction 
on the matter. My own impression was, and is, that the North 
will, in a military point of view, have the best of the contest, — 
will beat the South ; but that the Northerners will not prevent 
secession, let their success be what it may. Should the North 
prevail after a two years' conflict, the North will not admit 
the South to an equal participation of good things with them- 
selves, even though each separate rebellious State should return 
suppliant, like a prodigal son, kneeling on the floor of Congress, 
each with a separate rope of humiliation round its neck. Such 
was my idea as expressed then, and I do not know that I have 
-since had much cause to change it. 

" We will never give it up," one gentleman said to me — and, 
indeed, many have said the same, " till the whole territory is 



18 NORTH AMERICA. 

again united from the Bay to the Gulf! It is impossible t i;-it 
we should allow of two nationalities Avithin those limits." 
"And do you think it possible," I asked, "that you should re- 
ceive back into your bosom this people which you now hate 
with so deep a hatred, and receive them again into your arms 
as brothers on equal terms ? Is it in accordance with experi- 
ence that a conquered people should be so treated — and that, 
too, a people whose every habit of life is at variance with the 
habits of their presumed conquerors ? When you have flogged 
them into a return of fraternal affection, are they to keep their 
slaves or are they to abolish them ?" " No," said my friend ; 
"it may not be practical to put those rebellious States at once 
on an equality with ourselves. For a time they will probably 
be treated as the Territories are now treated." (The Territo- 
ries are vast outlying districts belonging to the Union, but not 
as yet endowed with State governments, or a participation iu 
the United States Congress.) "For a time they must, per- 
haps, lose their full privileges ; but the Union will be anxious 
to readmit them at the earliest possible period." " And as to 
the slaves?" I asked again. "Let them emigrate to Liberia: 
back to their own country." I could not say that I thought 
much of the solution of the difficulty. It would, I suggested, 
overtask even the energy of America to send out an emigra- 
tion of four million souls, to provide for their wants in a new 
and uncultivated country, and to provide after that for the ter- 
rible gap made in the labour market of the Southern States. 
"The Israelites went back from bondage," said my friend. 
But a way Avas opened for them by a miracle across the sea, 
and food was sent to them from heaven, and they had among 
them a Moses for a leader and a Joshua to fight their battles. 
I could not but express my fear that the days of such immigra- 
tions were over. This plan of sending back the negroes to 
Africa did not reach me only from one or from two mouths ; 
and it was suggested by men whose opinions respecting their 
country have weight at home and are entitled to weight abroad. 
I mention this merely to show how insurmountable would be 
the difficulty of preventing secession, let which side win that 
may. " 

" We will never abandon the right to the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi." That in all such arguments is a strong i>oint with 
men of the Northern States ; — perhaps the point to which they 
all return with the greatest firmness. It is that on which Mr. 
Everett insists in the last paragraph of the oration which he 
made in New York on 4th of July, 1861. "The Missouri and 



NEWPOKT KHODE ISLAND. 19 

the Mississippi rivers," he says, " with their hundred tributa- 
ries, give to the great central basin of our continent its char- 
acter and destiny. The outlet of this system lies between the 
States of Tennessee and Missouri, of Mississippi and Arkansas, 
and through the State of Louisiana. The ancient province so 
called, the proudest monument of the mighty monarch whose 
name it bears, passed from the jurisdiction of France to that 
of Spain in 1763. Spain coveted it; not that she might fill it 
with prosperous colonies and rising States, but that it might 
stretch as a broad waste barrier, infested with warlike tribes, 
between the Anglo-American power and the silver mines of 
Mexico. With the independence of the United States, the fear 
of a still more dangerous neighbour grew upon Spain ; and in 
the insane expectation of checking the progress of the Union 
westward, she threatened, and at times attempted, to close the 
mouth of the Mississippi on the rapidly increasing trade of the 
West. The bare suggestion of such a policy roused the popu- 
lation upon the banks of the Ohio, then inconsiderable, as one 
man. Their confidence in Washington scarcely restrained them 
from rushing to the seizure of New Orleans, when the treaty 
of San Lorenzo El Real, in 1795, stipulated for them a preca- 
rious right of navigating the noble river to the sea, with a 
right of deposit at New Orleans. Tins subject was for years 
the turning-point of the politics of the West ; and it was per- 
fectly well understood that, sooner or later, she would be con- 
tent with nothing less than the sovereign control of the mighty 
stream from its head-spring to its outlet in the Gulf. And that 
is as true now as it was thenP 

This is well put. It describes with force the desires, am- 
bition, and necessities of a great nation, and it tells with his- 
torical truth the story of the success of that nation. It was a 
great thing done when the purchase of the whole of Louisiana 
was completed by the United States, — that cession by France, 
however, having been made at the instance of Napoleon, and 
not in consequence of any demand made by the States. The 
district then called Louisiana included the present State of 
that name, and the States of Missouri and Arkansas ; — included 
also the right to possess, if not the absolute possession of, all 
that enormous expanse of country running from thence back 
to the Pacific ; a huge amount of territory of which the most 
fertile portion is watered by the Mississippi and its vast tribu- 
taries. That river and those tributaries are navigable through 
the whole centre of the American continent up to Wisconsin 
and Minnesota. To the United States the navigation of the 



20 NORTH AMERICA. 

Mississippi was, we may say, indispensable ; and to the States 
when no longer united the navigation Avill be equally indis- 
pensable. But the days are gone when any country, such as 
Spain was, can interfere to stop the highways of the world with 
the all but avowed intention of arresting the progress of civ- 
ilization. It may be that the North and the South can never 
again be friends as the component parts of one nation. Such I 
take it is tlie belief of all politicians in Europe, and of many of 
those who live across the water. But as separate nations they 
may yet live together in amity, and share between them the 
great Avater-ways which God has given them for their enrich- 
ment. The Rhine is free to Prussia and to Holland. The 
Danube is not closed against Austria. It will be said that the 
Danube has in fact been closed against Austria, in spite of 
treaties to the contrary. But the faults of bad and weak gov- 
ernments are made known as cautions to the world, and not as 
facts to copy. The free use of the waters of a common river 
between two nations is an aftair for treaty ; and it has not yet 
come to that that treaties must necessarily be null and void 
through the falseness of politicians. 

*' And what Avill England do for cotton ? Is it not the fact 
that Lord John Russell with his professed neutrality intends to 
express sympathy with the South, intends to pave the Avay for 
the advent of Southern cotton ?" " You ought to love us," so 
say men in Boston, " because we have been with you in heart 
and spirit for long, long years. But your trade has eaten into 
your souls, and you love American cotton better than Ameri- 
can loyalty and American fellowship." This I found to be un- 
fair, and in what politest language I could use I said so. I had 
not any special knowledge of the minds of English statesmen 
on this matter ; but I knew as well as Americans could do what 
our statesmen had said and done respecting it. That cotton, 
if it came from the South, Avould be made very welcome in 
Liverpool, of course, I knew. If private enterprise could bring 
it, it might be brought. But the very declaration made by 
Lord John Russell was the surest pledge that England as a 
nation would not interfere, even to supply her own wants. It 
may easily be imagined what eager words all this would bring 
about; but I never found that eager words led to feelings 
which were personally hostile. 

All the world has heard of Newport in Rhode Island as be- 
ing the Brighton, and Tenby, and Scarborough of New En- 
gland. And the glory of Newport is by no means confined to 
New England, but is shared by New York and Washington, 



NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND. 21 

and in ordinary years by the extreme South. It is the habit 
of Americans to go to some watering place every summer, — 
that is, to some place either of sea water or of inland waters. 
This is done much in England; -more in Ireland than in En- 
gland ; but, I think, more in the States than even in Ireland. 
But of all such summer haunts, Newport is supposed to be in 
many ways the most captivating. In the first place it is cer- 
tainly the most fashionable, and in the next place it is said to 
be the most beautiful. We decided on going to Newport, — 
led thither by the latter reputation rather than the former. 
As we were still in the early part of September we expected to 
find the place full, but in this we were disappointed; — disap- 
pointed, I say, rather than gratified, although a crowded house 
at such a place is certainly a nuisance. -But a house which is 
prepared to make up six hundred beds, and which is called on 
to make up only twenty-five becomes, after a while, somewhat 
melancholy. The natural depression of the landlord communi- 
cates itself to his servants, and from the servants it descends 
to the twenty-five guests, who wander about the long passages 
and deserted balconies like the ghosts of those of the summer 
visitors, who cannot rest quietly in their graves at home. 

In England we know nothing of hotels prepared for six hun- 
dred visitors, all of whom are expected to live in common. 
Domestic architects Avould be frightened at the dimensions 
which are needed, and at the number of apartments which are 
required to be clustered under one roof. We went to the Ocean 
Hotel at Newport, and fancied, as we first entered the hall un- 
der a verandah as high as the house, and made our way into the 
jDassage, that we had been taken to a Avell-arranged barrack. 
"Have you rooms?" I asked, as a man always floes ask on first 
reaching his inn. " Rooms enough," the clerk said. " We 
have only fifty here." But that fifty dwindled down to twenty- 
five during the next day or two. 

We W' ere a melancholy set, the ladies appearing to be afflicted 
in this way w^orse than the gentlemen, on account of their en- 
forced abstinence from tobacco. What can tw^elve ladies do 
scattered about a drawing-room, so-called, intended for the ac- 
commodation of two hundred ? The drawing-room at the Ocean 
Hotel, Newport, is not as big as Westminster Hall, but would, 
I should think, make a very good House of Commons for the 
British nation. Fancy the feelings of a lady when she walks 
into such a room intending to spend her evening there, and 
finds six or seven other ladies located on various sofas at ter- 
rible distances — all strangers to her. She lias come to New- 



22 NORTH AMERICA. 

port probably to enjoy herself; and as, in accordance with the 
customs of the j^lace, she has dined at two, she has nothing be- 
fore her for the evening but the society of that huge furnished 
cavern. Her husband, if she have one, or her father, or her 
lover, has probably entered the room with her. But a man 
has never the courage to endure such a position long. He 
sidles out Avith some muttered excuse, and seeks solace with a 
cigar. The lady, after half an hour of contemplation, creeps 
silently near some companion in the desert, and suggests in a 
whisper that Newport does not seem to be very full at present. 

We stayed there for a week, and were very melancholy ; but 
in our melancholy we still talked of the war. Americans are 
said to be given to bragging, and it is a sin of which I can not 
altogether acquit them. But I have constantly been surprised 
at hearing the Northern speak of their own military achieve- 
ments with any thing but self-praise. " We've been whipped, 
sir ; and we shall be whipped again before we've done ; un- 
common well whipped we shall be." "We began cowardly, 
and were afraid to send our own regiments through one of our 
own cities." This alluded to a demand that had been made on 
the Government, that troops going to Washington should not 
be sent through Baltimore, because of the strong feeling for 
rebellion which was known to exist in that city. President 
Lincoln complied with this request, thinking it well to avoid a 
collision between the mob and the soldiers. " We began cow- 
ardly, and now we're going on cowardly, and darn't attack 
them. Well; when we've been whipped often enough, then 
we shall learn the trade." Now all this, — and I heard much 
of such a nature, — could not be called boasting. But yet with 
it all there was a substratum of confidence. I have heard 
northern gentlemen complaining of the President, complaining 
of all his ministers one after another, complaining of the con- 
tractors who were robbing the army, of the commanders who 
did not know how to command the army, and of the army it- 
self which did not know how-to obey ; but I do not remem- 
ber that I have discussed the matter with any Northerner who 
would admit a doubt as to ultimate success. 

We were certainly rather melancholy at Newport, and the 
empty house may perhaps have given its tone to the discus- 
sions on the war. I confess that I could not stand the draw- 
ing-room — the ladies' drawing-room as such-like rooms are al- 
ways called at the hotels, and that I basely deserted my wife. 
I could not stand it either here or elsewhere, and it seemed to 
me that other husbands, — ay, and even lovers, — were as hard 



NEWPORT KHODE ISLAND. 23 

pressed as myself. I protest that there is no spot on the earth's 
surface so dear to me as my own drawing-room, or rather my 
Avife's drawing-room at home ; that I am not a man given huge- 
ly to clubs, but one rather rejoicing in the rustle of petticoats. 
I like to have women in the same room with me. But at these 
hotels I found myself driven away, — propelled as it were by 
some unknown force, — to absent myself from the feminine 
haunts. Anything was more palatable than them ; even " li- 
quoring up" at a nasty bar, or smoking in a comfortless read- 
ing-room among a deluge of American news^^apers. And 1 pro- 
test also, — hoping as I do so that I may say much in this vol- 
ume to prove the truth of such protestation,— -that this comes 
from no fault of the American women. They are as lovely as 
our own womeu. Taken generally, they are better instructed 
— though perhaps not better educated. They are seldom trou- 
bled w^ith mauvaise honte^ — I do not say it in irony, but beg- 
ging that the words may be taken at their proper meaning. 
They can always talk, and very often can talk well. But when 
assembled together in these vast, cavernous, would-be luxuri- 
ous, but in truth horribly comfortless hotel drawing-rooms, — 
they are unapproachable. I have seen lovers, whom I have 
tnown to be lovers, unable to remain five minutes in the same 
cavern Avith their beloved ones. 

And then the music ? There is always a piano in an hotel 
drawing-room, on which, of course, some one of the forlorn la- 
dies is generally employed. I do not suppose that these pianos 
are in fact, as a rule, louder and harsher, more violent and less 
musical, than other instruments of the kind. They seem to be 
so, but that, I take it, arises from the exceptional mental de- 
pression of those who have to listen to them. Then the ladies, 
or probably some one lady, will sing, and as she hears her own 
voice ring and echo through the lofty corners and round the 
empty walls, she is surprised at her own force, and with in- 
creased efibrts sings louder and still louder. She is tempted to 
fancy that she is suddenly gifted with some jDOwer of vocal mel- 
ody unknown to her before, and filled with the glory of her 
own performance shouts till the whole house rings. At such 
moments she at least is happy, if no one else is so. Looking at 
the general sadness of her position, who can grudge her such 
happiness ? 

And then the children, — babies, I should say if I were speak- 
ing of English bairns of their age ; but seeing that they are 
Americans, I hardly dare to call them children. The actual 
age of these perfectly civilized and highly educated beings may 



24 NOETH AMERICA. 

be from three to four. One will often see five or six such 
seated at the long dinner-table of the hotel, breakfasting and 
dining with their elders, and going through the ceremony with 
all the gravity, and more than all the decorum of their grand- 
fathers. When I was three years old I had not yet, as I im- 
agine, been promoted beyond a silver spoon of my OAvn where- 
with to eat my bread and milk in the nursery, and I feel as- 
sured that I was under the innuediate care of a nursemaid, as 
I gobbled up my minced mutton mixed with potatoes and gra- 
vy. But at hotel life in the States the adult infant lisps to the 
waiter for everything at table, handles his fish with epicurean 
delicacy, is choice in his selection of pickles, very particular 
that his beefsteak at breakfast shall be hot, and is instant in 
his demand for fresh ice in his water. But perhaps his, or in 
this case her, retreat from the room when the meal is over, is 
the chef cVoeuvre of the whole performance. The little preco- 
cious, full-blown beauty of four signifies that she has complet- 
ed her meal, — or is "through" her dinner, as she would ex- 
press it, — by carefully extricating herself from the napkin which 
has been tucked around her. Then the waiter, ever attentive 
to her movements, draws back the chair on which she is seat- 
ed, and the young lady glides to the floor. A little girl in Old 
England would scramble down, but little girls in New England 
never scramble. Her father and mother, who are no more 
than her chief ministers, walk before her out of the saloon, and 
then she, — swims after them. But swimming is not the prop- 
er word. * Fishes in making their way through the water as- 
sist, or rather impede, their motion with no dorsal riggle. No 
animal taught to move directly by its Creator adopts a gait so 
useless, and at the same time so graceless. Many women, hav- 
ing received their lessons in w^alking from a less eligible in- 
structor, do move in this way, and such women this unfortu- 
nate little lady has been instructed to copy. The peculiar step 
to which I allude is to be seen often on the Boulevards in Par- 
is. It is to be seen more often in second rate French towns, 
and among fourth rate French women. Of all signs in w^onien 
betokening vulgarity, bad taste, and aptitude to bad morals, it 
is the surest. And this is the gait of going which American 
mothers, — some American mothers I should say, — love to teach 
their daughters ! As a comedy at an hotel, it is very dehght- 
ful, but in private life I should object to it. 

To me Newport could never be a place charming by reason 
of its own charms. That it is a very pleasant place when it is 
full of people and the people are in spirits and happy, I do not 



NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND. 25 

doubt. But then the visitors would bring, as far as I am con- 
cerned, the pleasantness with them. The coast is not fine. To 
those who know the best portions of the coast of Wales or 
Cornwall, — or better still, the western coast of Ireland, of Clare 
and Kerry for instance, — it would not be in any way remark- 
able. It is by no means equal to Dieppe or Biarritz, and not 
to be talked of in the same breath with Spezzia. The hotels, 
too, are all built away from the sea; so that one cannot sit 
and watch the play of the waves from one's window. Nor are 
there pleasant rambling paths down among the rocks, and from 
one short strand to another. There is excellent bathing for 
those who like bathing on shelving sand. I don't. The spot 
is about half a mile from the hotels, and to this the bathers are 
carried in omnibuses. Till one o'clock ladies bathe; — which 
operation, however, does not at all militate against the bathing 
of men, but rather necessitates it as regards those men who 
have ladies with them. For here ladies and gentlemen bathe 
in decorous dresses, and are very polite to each other. I must 
say, that I think the ladies have the best of it. My idea of sea- 
bathing for my own gratification is not compatible with a full 
suit of clothing. I own that my tastes are vulgar and perhaps 
indecent ; but I love to jump into the deep clear sea from off" a 
rock, and I love to be hampered by no outward impediments 
as I do so. For ordinary bathers, for all ladies, and for men 
less savage in their instincts than I am, the bathing at Newport 
is very good. 

The private houses — villa residences as they would be termed 
by an auctioneer in England — are excellent. Many of them 
are, in fact, large mansions, and are surrounded with grounds, 
which, as the shrubs grow up, will be very beautiful. Some 
have large, well-kept lawns, stretching down to the rocks, and 
these to my taste give the charm to Newport. They extend 
about two miles along the coast. Should my lot have made 
me a citizen of the United States, I should have had no objec- 
tion to become the possessor of one of these " villa residences," 
but I do not think that I should have "gone in" for hotel life 
at Newport. 

We hired saddle-horses, and rode out nearly the length of 
the island. It was all very a\^11, but there was little in it re- 
markable either as regards cultivation or scenery. We found 
nothing that it would be possible either to describe or remem- 
ber. The Americans of the United States have had time to 
build and populate vast cities, but they have not yet had time 
to surround themselves with pretty scenery. Outlying grand 

B 



26 NORTH AMERICA. 

scenery is given by nature ; but the prettiness of home scenery 
is a work of art. It comes from the thorough draining of land, 
from the pUmting and subsequent thinning of trees, from the 
controlHng of waters, and constant use of minute patches of 
broken land. In another hundred years or so Rhode Island 
may be, perhaps, as pretty as the Isle of Wight. The horses 
which we got were not good. They were unhandy and badly 
mouthed, and that which my wife rode was altogether ignorant 
of the art of walking. We hired them from an Englishman, 
who had established himself at New York as a riding-master 
for ladies, and who had come to Newport for the season on 
the same business. He complained to 'me with much bitter- 
ness of the saddle-horses which came in his way, — of course 
thinking that it was the special business of a country to pro- 
duce saddle-horses, — as I think it the special business of a 
country to produce pens, ink, and paper of good quality. Ac- 
cording to him, riding has not yet become an American art, 
and hence the awkwardness of American horses. " Lord bless 
you, sir ! they don't give an animal a chance of a mouth." In 
this he alluded only, I presume, to saddle-horses. I know 
nothing of the trotting-horses, but I should imagine that a fine 
mouth must be an essential requisite for a trotting-match in 
harness. As regards riding at Newport, we were not tempted 
to repeat the experiment. The number of carriages which we 
saw there, — remembering as I did that the place was compar- 
atively empty, — and their general smartness, surprised me very 
much. It seemed that every lady with a house of her own 
had also her own carriage. These carriages were always open, 
and the law of thel and imperatively demands that the occu- 
pants shall cover their knees Avith a worked worsted apron of 
brilliant colours. These aprons at first, I confess, seemed 
tawdry ; but the eye soon becomes used to bright colours, in 
carriage aprons as well as in architecture, and I soon learned 
to like them. 

Rhode Island, as the State is usually called, is the smallest 
State in the Union. I may perhaps best show its disparity to 
other States by saying that New York extends about 250 miles 
from north to south, and the same distance from east to west ; 
whereas the State called Rhode Island is about forty miles long 
by twenty broad, independently of certain small islands. It 
would, in fact, not form a considerable addition if added on to 
many of the other States. Nevertheless, it has all the same 
powers of self-government as are possessed by such nationali- 
ties as the States of New York and Pennsylvania ; and sends 



NEWPORT — EHODE ISLAND. 27 

two senators to the Senate at Washington, as do those enor- 
mous States. Small as the State is, Rhode Island itself forms 
but a small portion of it. The authorized and proper name of 
the State is Providence Plantation and Rhode Island. Roger 
Wilhams was the first founder of the colony, and he established 
himself on the mainland at a spot which he called Providence. 
Here now stands the city of Providence, the chief town of the 
State ; and a thriving, comfortable town it seems to be, full of 
banks, fed by railways and steamers, and going ahead quite as 
quickly as Roger Williams could in his fondest hopes have de- 
sired. 

Rhode Island, as I have said, has all the attributes of gov- 
ernment in common with her stouter and more famous sisters. 
She has a governor, and an upper house, and a lower house of 
legislature ; and she is somewhat fantastic in the use of these 
constitutional powers, for she calls on them to sit now in one 
town and now in another. Providence is the capital of the 
State ; but the Rhode Island parliament sits sometimes at Prov- 
idence and sometimes at Newport. At stated times also it has 
to collect itself at Bristol, and at other stated times at Kings- 
ton, and at others at East Greenwich. Of all legislative "as- 
semblies it is the most peripatetic. Universal suffrage does 
not absolutely prevail in this State, a certain property qualifi- 
cation being necessary to confer a right to vote even for the 
State Representatives. I should think it would be well for all 
parties if the whole State could be swallowed up by Massachu- 
setts or by Connecticut, either of which lie conveniently for the 
feat ; but I presume that any suggestion of such a nature would 
be regarded as treason by the men of Providence Plantation. 

We returned back to Boston by Attleborough, a town at 
which in ordinary times the whole population is supported by 
the jewellers' trade. It is a place with a speciality, upon which 
speciality it has thriven well and become a town. But the spe- 
ciality is one ill adapted for times of war; and we were as- 
sured that the trade was for the present at an end. What man 
could now-a-days buy jewels, or even what woman, seeing that 
everything would be required for the war ? I do not say that 
such abstinence from luxury has been begotten altogether by 
a feeling of patriotism. The direct taxes which all Americans 
will now be called on to pay, have had, and will have much to 
do with such abstinence. In the mean time the poor jewellers 
of Attleborough have gone altogether to the wall. 



28 NOBTH AMEBICA. 



CHAPTER III. 

MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 

Perhaps I ought to assume that all the world in England 
knows that that portion of the United States called New En- 
gland consists of the six States of Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This is 
especially the land of Yankees, and none can properly be called 
Yankees but those who belong to New England. I have named 
the States as nearly as may be in order from the North down- 
wards. Of Rhode Island, the smallest State in the Union, I 
have already said what little X have to say. Of these six States 
Boston may be called the capital. Not that it is so in any civil 
or political sense ; — it is simply the capital of Massachusetts. 
But as it is the Athens of the Western world ; as it Avas the 
cradle of American freedom ; as everybody of course knows 
that into Boston harbour was thrown the tea which George HI. 
would tax, and that at Boston, on account of that and similar 
taxes, sprang up the new revolution ; and as it has grown in 
wealth, and fame, and size beyond other towns in Ncav En- 
gland, it may be allowed to us to regard it as the capital of 
these six Northern States, without guilt of Ihse majeste towards 
the other five. To me, I confess, this Northern division of our 
once unruly colonies is, and always has been, the dearest. I 
am no Puritan myself, and fancy that had I lived in the days 
of the Puritans, I should have been anti-Puritan to the full ex- 
tent of my capabilities. But I should have been so through 
ignorance and prejudice, and actuated by that love of existing 
rights and wrongs which men call loyalty. If the Canadas 
were to rebel now, I should be for putting down the Canadians 
with a strong hand ; but not the less have I an idea that it will 
become the Canadas to rebel and assert their independence at 
some future period; — unless it be conceded to them without 
such rebellion. Who, on looking back, can now refuse to ad- 
mire the political aspirations of the English Puritans, or decline 
to acknowledge the beauty and fitness of what they did ? It 
was by them that these States of New England were colonized.. 
They came hither stating themselves to be pilgrims, and as 
such they first placed their feet on that hallowed rock at Plym- 
outh, on the shore of Massachusetts. They came here driven 
by no thirst of conquest, by no greed for gold, dreaming of no 
Western empire such as Cortez had achieved and Raleigh had 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 29 

meditated. They desired to earn their bread in the sweat of 
their brow, worshipping God according to their own lights, 
living in harmony under their own laws, and feeling that no 
master could claim a right to put a heel upon their necks. And 
be it remembered that here in England, in those days, earthly 
masters were still apt to put their heels on the necks of men. 
The Star Chamber was gone, but Jeifreys had not yet reigned. 
What earthly aspirations were ever higher than these, or more 
manly ? And what earthly efforts ever led to grander results ? 

We determined to go to Portland, in Maine, from thence to 
the White Mountains in New Hampshire — the American Alps, 
as they love to call themselves, — and then on to Quebec and up 
through the two Canadas to Niagara; and this route we fol- 
lowed. From Boston to Portland we travelled by railroad, — 
the carriages on which are in America always called cars. And 
here I beg, once for all, to enter my protest loudly against the 
manner in which these conveyances are conducted. The one 
grand fault — there are other smaller faults — but the one grand 
fault is that they admit but one class. Two reasons for this 
are given. The first is that the finances of the companies will 
not admit of a divided accommodation ; and the second is that 
the republican nature of the people will not brook a superior 
or aristocratic classification of travelling. As regards the first, 
I do not in the least believe in it. If a more expensive man- 
ner of railway travelling will pay in England, it would surely 
do so here. Were a better class of carriages organized, as 
large a portion of the population would use them in the United 
States as in any country in Europe. And it seems to be evi- 
dent that in arranging that there shall be only one rate of 
travelling, the price is enhanced on poor travellers exactly in 
proportion as it is made cheap to those who are not poor. For 
the poorer classes, travelling in America is by no means cheap, 
— the average rate being, as far as I can judge, fully three- 
halfpence a mile. It is manifest that dearer rates for one class 
would allow of cheaper rates for the other; and that in this 
manner general travelling would be encouraged and increased. 

But I do not believe that the question of expenditure has 
had anything to do with it. 1 conceive it to be true that the 
railways are afraid to put themselves at variance with the gen- 
eral feeling of the peojole. If so the railways may be right. 
But then, on the other hand, the general feeling of the people 
must in such case be wrong. Such a feeling argues a total 
mistake as to the nature of that liberty and equality for the se- 
curity of which the people is so anxious, and that mistake the 



30 NOKTH AMEBIC A. 

very one which has made shipwreck so many attempts at free- 
dom in other countries. It argues that confusion between so- 
cial and poUtical equality which has led astray multitudes who 
have longed for liberty fervently, but who have not thought of 
it carefully. If a fiyst-class railway carriage should be held as 
offensive, so should a first-class house, or a first-class horse, or 
a first-class dinner. But first-class houses, first-class horses, and 
first-class dinners are very rife in America. Of course it may 
be said that the expenditure shown in these last-named objects 
is private expenditure, and cannot be controlled ; and that rail- 
way travelling is of a public nature, and can be made subject 
to public opinion. But the fault is in that public opinion which 
desires to control matters of this nature. Such an arrangement 
partakes of all the vice of a. sumptuary law, and sumptuary laws 
are in their very essence mistakes. It is well that a man should 
always have all for which he is Avilling to pay. If he desires 
and obtains more than is good for him, the punishment, and 
thus also the preventive, will come from other sources. 

It will be said that the American cars are good enough for 
all purposes. The seats are not very hard, and the room for 
sitting is sufficient. Nevertheless I deny that they are good 
enough for all purposes. They are very long, and to enter 
them and find a place often requires a struggle and almost a 
fight. There is rarely any person to tell a stranger which car 
he should enter. One never meets an uncivil or unruly man, 
but the women of the lower ranks are not courteous. Amer- 
ican ladies love to lie at ease in their carriages, as thoroughly 
as do our Avomenln Hyde Park, and to those who are used to 
such luxury, travelling by railroad in their own country must 
be grievous. I would not wish to be thought a Sybarite my- 
self^ or to be held as complaining because I have been com- 
pelled to give up my seat to women with babies and band- 
boxes who have accepted the courtesy with very scanty grace. 
I have borne worse things than these, and have roughed it 
much in my days from want of means and other reasons. Nor 
am I yet so old but what I can rough it still. Nevertheless I 
like to see things as well done as is practicable, and railway 
travelling in the States is not well done. I feel bound to say 
as much as this, and now I have said it, once for all. 

Few cities, or localities for cities, have fairer natural advant- 
ages than Portland — and I am bound to say that the peojDle of 
Portland have done much in turning them to account. This 
town is not the capital of the State in apolitical point of view, 
Augusta, which is further to the North, on the Kennebec riv- 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 31 

er, is the seat of the State Government for Maine. It is very 
generally the case that the States do not hold their legislatures 
and carry on their government at their chief towns. Augusta 
and not Portland is the capital of Maine. Of the State of New 
York, Albany is the capital, and not the city which bears the 
State's name. And of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg and not Phil- 
adelphia is the capital. I think the idea has been that old-fash- 
ioned notions were bad in that they were old-fashioned ; and 
that a new people, bound by no prejudices, might certainly 
make improvement by choosing for themselves new ways. If 
so the American politicians have not been the first in the world 
who have thought that any change must be a change for the 
better. The assigned reason is the centrical position of the se- 
lected political capitals : but I have generally found the real 
commercial capital to be easier of access than the smaller town 
in which the two leofislative houses are obliQ:ed to collect them- 
selves. i 

What must be the natural excellence of the harbour of Port- 
land will be understood when it is borne in mind that the Great 
Eastern can enter it at all times, and that it can lie along the 
wharves at any hour of the tide. The wharves which have been 
prepared for her — and of which I will say a word farther by- 
and-by — are joined to and in fact are a portion of the station of 
the Grand Trunk Railway, Avhich runs from Portland ujd to 
Canada. So that passengers landing at Portland out of a vessel 
so large even as the Great Eastern can walk at once on shore, 
and goods can be passed on to the railway without any of the 
cost of removal. I will not say that there is^no other harbour 
in the world that would allow of this, but I do not know any 
other that would do so. o^cX' 

From Portland a line of railway, called as a whole by the 
name of the Canada Grand Trunk line, runs across the State of 
Maine through the Northern parts of New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont, to Montreal, a branch striking from Richmond, a little 
within the limits of Canada, to Quebec, and down the St. Law- 
rence to Riviere du Loup. The main line is continued from 
Montreal, through Upper Canada to TcJT-onto, and from thence 
to Detroit in the State of Michigan. The total distance thus 
traversed is in a direct line about 900 miles. From Detroit 
there is railway communication through the immense North- 
Western States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, than which 
perhaps the surface of the globe affords no finer districts for 
purposes of agriculture. The produce of the two Canadas must 
be poured forth to the Eastern world, and the men of the East- 



32 NORTH AMERICA. 

ern world must throng into these lands, by means of this rail- 
road, — and, as at present arranged, through the harbour of Port- 
land. At present the line has been opened, and they who have 
opened are sorely suffering in pocket for what they have done. 
The question of the railway is rather one applying to Canada 
than to the State of Maine, and I will therefore leave it for the 
present. 

But the Great Eastern has never been to Portland, and as 
far as I know has no intention of going there. She was^ I be- 
lieve, built with that object. At any rate it was proclaimed 
during her building that such was her destiny, and the Port- 
lauders believed it with a perfect faith. They went to work 
and built wharves expressly for her ; two wharves prepared to 
fit her two gangways, or ways of exit and entrance. They 
built a huge hotel to receive her passengers. They prepared 
for her advent Avith a full conviction that a millennium of trade 
was about to be wafted to their happy port. " Sir, the town 
has expended two hundred thousand dollars in expectation of 
that ship, and that ship has deceived us." So was the matter 
spoken of to me by an intelligent Portlander. I explained to 
that intelligent gentleman that two hundred thousand dollars 
Avould go a very little way towards making up the loss which 
the ill-fortuned vessel had occasioned on the other side of the 
water. He did not in words express gratification at this in- 
formation, but he looked it. The matter was as it were a 
partnership without deed of contract between the Portlanders 
and the shareholders of the vessel, and the Portlanders, though 
they also have suffered their losses, have not had the worst of it. 

But there are still good days in store for the town. Though 
the Great Eastern has not gone there, other ships from Europe, 
more profitable if less in size, must eventually find their way 
thither. At present the Canada line of packets runs to Port- 
land only during those months in which it is shut out from the 
St. Lawrence and Quebec by ice. But the St. Lawrence and 
Quebec cannot offer the advantages which Portland enjoys, and 
that big hotel and those new wharves will not have been built 
in vain. 

I have said that a good time is coming, but I would by 
no means wish to signify that the present times in Portland 
are bad. So far from it, that I doubt whether I ever saw a 
town with more evident signs of prosperity. It has about it 
every mark of ample means, and no mark of poverty. It con- 
tains about 27,000 people, and for that population covers a 
very large space of ground. The streets are broad and well 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 83 

built, the main streets not running in those absohitely straight 
parallels which are so common in American towns, and are so 
distressing to English eyes and English feelings. All these, 
except the streets devoted exclusively to business, are shaded 
on both sides by trees — generally, if I remember rightly, by 
the beautiful American elm, whose drooping boughs have all 
the grace of the willow without its fantastic melancholy. 
What the jDOorer streets of Portland may be like I cannot 
say. I saw no poor street. But in no town of 30,000 inhab- 
itants did I ever see so many houses which must require an 
expenditure of from six to eight hundred a year to maintain 
them. 

The place too is beautifully situated. It is on a long prom- 
ontory, which takes the shape of a jDeninsula; — for the neck 
which joins it to the mainland is not above half a mile across. 
But though the town thus stands out into the sea, it is not ex- 
posed and bleak. The harbour again is surrounded by land, 
or so guarded and locked by islands as to form a series of salt- 
water lakes running round the town. Of those islands there 
are, of course, 365. Travellers who write their travels are con- 
stantly called upon to record that number, so that it may now 
be considered as a superlative in local phraseology, signifying 
a very great many indeed. The town stands between two 
hills, the suburbs or outskirts running \\p on to each of them. 
The one looking out towards the sea is called Mountjoy — 
though the obstinate Americans will write it Munjoy on their 
maps. From thence the view out to the harbour and beyond 
the harbour to the islands is, I may not say unequalled, or I 
shall be guilty of running into superlatives myself; but it is, in 
its way, equal to anything I have seen. Perhaps it is more 
like Cork harbour, as seen from certain heights over Passage 
than anything else I can remember; but Portland harbour, 
though equally landlocked, is larger ; and then from Portland 
harbour there is as it were a river outlet, running through de- 
licious islands, most unalluring to the navigator, but delicious 
to the eyes of an uncommercial traveller. There are in all four 
outlets to the sea, one of which appears to have been made ex- 
pressly for the Great Eastern. Then there is the hill looking 
inwards. If it has a name I forget it. The view" from this hill 
is also over the water on each side, and though not so extens- 
ive is perhaps as pleasing as the other. 

The w^ays of the people seemed to be quiet, smooth, orderly, 
and republican. There is nothing to drink in Portland of 
course, for, thanks to Mr. Neal Dow", the Father Mathew of 

B2 



34 NORTH AMERICA. 

the State of Maine, the Maine Liquor Law is still in force in 
that State. There is nothing to drink, I should say, in such 
orderly houses as that I selected. " People do drink some in 
the town, they say," said my hostess to me ; " and liquor is to 
be got. But I never venture to sell any. An ill-natured per- 
son might turn on me, and where should I be then ?" I did 
not press her, and she was good enough to put a bottle of por- 
ter at my right hand at dinner, for which I observed she made 
no charge. " But they advertise beer in the shop-windows," 
I said to a man who was driving me — " Scotch ale, and bitter 
beer. A man can get drunk on them." " Wa'al, yes. If he 
goes to work hard, and drinks a bucketfull," said the driver, 
" perhaps he may." From which and other things I gathered 
that the men of Maine drank pottle deep before Mr. Neal Dow 
brought his exertions to a successful termination. 

Th"e Maine Liquor Law still stands in Maine, and is the law 
of the land throughout New England ; but it is not actually 
put in force in the other States. By this law no man may re- 
tail wine, spirits, or, in truth, beer, except with a special license, 
which is given only to those who are presumed to sell them as 
medicines. A man may have what he likes in his own cellar 
for his own use — such at least is the actual working of the law 
— ^but may not obtain it at hotels and public-houses. This law, 
like all sumptuary laws, must fail. And it is fast failing even 
in Maine. But it did appear to me from such information as 
I could collect that the passing of it had done much to hinder 
and repress a habit of hard drinking which was becoming ter- 
ribly common, not only in the towns of Maine, but among the 
farmers and hired labourers in the country. 

But if the men and women of Portland may not drink they 
may eat, and it is a place, I should say, in which good living 
on that side of the question is very rife. It has an air of su- 
preme plenty, as though the agonies of an empty stomach were 
never known there. The faces of the people tell of three reg- 
ular meals of meat a day, and of digestive powers in propor- 
tion. Oh happy Portlanders, if they only knew their own good 
fortune ! They get up early, and go to bed early. The women 
are comely and sturdy, able to take care of themselves without 
any fal-lal of chivalry ; and the men are sedate, obliging, and 
industrious. I saw the young girls in the streets, coming home 
from their tea-parties at nine o'clock, many of them alone, and 
all with some basket in their hands which betokened an even- 
ing not passed absolutely in idleness. No fear there of unruly 
questions on the way, or of insolence from the ill-conducted of 



i 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 35 

the other sex! All was, or seemed to be, orderly, sleek, and 
unobtrusive. Probably of all modes of life that are allotted to 
man by his Creator, life such as this is the most happy. One 
hint, however, for improvement I must give, even to Portland ! 
It would be well if they could make their streets of some 
material harder than sand. 

I must not leave the town without desiring those who may 
visit it to mount the Observatory. They will from thence get 
the best view of the harbour and of the surrounding land ; and, 
if they chance to do so under the reign of the present keeper 
of the signals, they will find a man there able and willing to 
tell them everything needful about the State of Maine in gen- 
eral, and the harbour in particular. He will come out in his 
shirt sleeves, and, like a true American, will not at first be very 
smooth in his courtesy ; but he will wax brighter in conversa- 
tion, and if not stroked the wrong way will turn out to be an 
uncommonly pleasant felloAV. Such I believe to be the case 
with most of them. 

From Portland we made our way up to the White Mount- 
ains, which lay on our route to Canada. Now I would ask any 
of my readers who are candid enough to expose their 5wn ig- 
norance whether they ever heard, or at any rate whether they 
know any thing of the White Mountains. As regards myself 
I confess that the name had reached my ears ; that I had an 
indefinite idea that they formed an intermediate stage between 
the Rocky Mountains and the AUeghenies, and that they were 
inhabited either by Mormons, Indians, or simply by black 
bears. That there was a district in New England containing 
mountain scenery superior to much that is yearly crowded by 
tourists in Europe, that this is to be reached with ease by rail- 
ways and stage-coaches, and that it is dotted with huge hotels, 
almost as thickly as they lie in Switzerland, I had no idea. 
Much of this scenery, I say, is superior to the famed and classic 
lands of Europe. I know nothing, for instance, on the Rhine 
equal to the view from Mount Willard, down the mountain 
pass called the Notch. 

Let the visitor of these regions be as late in the year as he 
can, taking care that he is not so late as to find the hotels 
closed. October, no doubt, is the most beautiful month among 
these mountains, but according to the present arrangement of 
matters here, the hotels are shut up by the end of September. 
With us, August, September, and October are the holiday 
months ; whereas our rebel children across the Atlantic love to 
disport themselves in July and August. The great beauty of 



36 NORTH AMERICA. 

the autumn, or fall, is in the brilliant hues which are then taken 
by the foliage. The autumnal tints are fine with us. They are 
lovely and bright wherever foliage and vegetation form a part 
of the beauty of scenery. But in no other land do they ap- 
i:)roach the brilliancy of the fall in America. The bright rose 
colour, the rich bronze which is almost purple in its richness, 
and the glorious golden yellows must be seen to be understood. 
By me at any rate they cannot be described. These begin to 
show themselves in September, and perhaps I might name the 
latter half of that month as the best time for visiting the White 
Mountains. 

I am not going to write a guide-book, feeling sure that Mr. 
Murray will do New England, and Canada, including Niagara 
and the Hudson river, with a peep into Boston and New York 
before many more seasons have passed by. But I cannot for- 
bear to tell my countrymen that any enterprising individual 
with a hundred pounds to spend on his holiday, — a hundred 
and twenty would make him more comfortable in regard to 
wine, washing, and other luxuries, — and an absence of two 
months fi*om his labours, may see as much and do as much 
here for the money as he can see or do elsewhere. In some . 
respects he may do more ; for he will learn more of American 
nature in such a journey than he can ever learn of the nature 
of Frenchmen or Americans by such an excursion among them. 
Some three weeks of the time, or perhaps a day or two over, 
he must be at sea, and that portion of his trip will cost him 
fifty pounds, — presuming that he chooses to go in the most 
comfortable and costly Avay ; — but his time on board ship will 
not be lost. He will learn to know much of Americans there, 
and will perhaps form acquaintances of which he will not alto- 
gether lose sight for many a year. He will land at Boston, 
and staying a day or two there will visit Cambridge, Lowell, 
and Bunker Hill ; and, if he be that way given, will remember 
that here live, and occasionally are to be seen alive, men such 
as Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, and a host of others 
whose names and fames have made Boston the throne of West- 
ern Literature. He will then, — if he take my advice and fol- 
low my track, — go by Portland up into the White Mountains. 
At Gorham, a station on the Grand Trunk line, he will find an 
hotel as good as any of its kind, and from thence he will take 
a light waggon, so called in these countries ; — and here let me 
presume that the traveller is not alone; he has his wife or 
friend, or perhaps a pair of sisters, — and in his waggon he will 
go up through primeval forests to the Glen House. When 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 37 

there he will ascend Mount Washington on a pony. That is 
de riguem\ and I do not, therefore, dare to recommend him to 
omit the ascent. I did not gain much myself by my labour. 
He will not stay at the Glen House, but will go on to — Jack- 
son's I think they call the next hotel ; at which he will sleep. 
From thence he will take his waggon on through the Notch to 
the Crawford House, sleeping there again ; and when here let 
him of all things remember to go up Mount Willard. It is but 
a walk of two hours, up and down, if so much. When reach- 
ing the top he will be startled to find that he looks down into 
the ravine without an inch of fore-ground. He will come out 
suddenly on a ledge of rock, from whence, as it seems, he might 
leap down at once into the valley below. Then going on from 
the Crawford House he will be driven through the woods of 
Cherry Mount, passing, I fear without toll of custom, the house 
of my excellent friend Mr. Plaistead, who keeps an hotel at 
Jefferson. '' Sir," said Mr. Plaistead, " I have everything here 
that a man ought to Avant ; air, sir, that ain't to be got better 
nowhere; trout, chickens, beef, mutton, milk, — and all for a 
dollar a day. A-top of that hill, sir, there's a view that ain't 
to be beaten this side of the Atlantic, or I believe the other. 
And an echo, sir ! — We've an echo that comes back to us six 
times, sir ; floating on the light wind, and wafted about from 
rock to rock till you would think the angels were talking to 
you. If I could raise that echo, sir, every day at command I'd 
give a thousand dollars for it. It would be worth all the mon- 
ey to a house like this." And he waved his hand about from 
hill to hill, pointing out in graceful curves the lines which the 
sounds would take. Had destiny not called on Mr. Plaistead 
to keep an American hotel, he might have been a poet. 

My traveller, however, unless time were plenty with him, 
would pass Mr. Plaistead, merely lighting a friendly cigar, or 
perhaps breaking the Maine Liquor Law if the weather be 
warm, and would return to Gorham on the railway. All this 
mountain district is in New Hampshire, and presuming him to 
be capable of going about the world with his mouth, ears, and 
eyes open, he would learn much of the Avay in which men are 
settling themselves in this still sparsely populated country. 
Here young farmers go into the woods, as they are doing far 
down west in the Territories, and buying some hundred acres 
at perhaps six shillings an acre, fell and. burn the trees and 
build their huts, and take the first steps, as far as man's work 
is concerned, towards accomplishing the will of the Creator in 
those regions. For such pioneers of civilization there is still 



OS NORTH AMEEICA. 

ample room even in the long settled States of New Hampshire 
and Vermont. 

But to return to my traveller, whom having brought so far, 
I must send on. Let him go on from Gorham to Quebec, and 
the heights of Abraham, stopping at Sherbrooke that he might 
visit from thence the lake of Memphra Magog. As to the 
manner of travelling over this ground I shall say a little in the 
next chapter, when I come to the progress of myself and my 
wife. From Quebec he will go up the St. Lawrence to Mon- 
treal. He will visit Ottawa, the new capital, and Toronto. 
He will cross the Lake to Niagara, resting probably at the 
Clifton House on the Canada side. He will then pass on to 
Albany, taking the Trenton falls on his way. From Albany 
he will go down the LIudson to West-Point. He cannot stop 
at the Catskill Mountains, for the hotel will be closed. And 
then he will take the river boat, and in a few hours will find 
himself at New York. If he desires to go into American city 
society, he will find New York agreeable ; but in that case he 
must exceed his two months. If he do not so desire, a short 
sojourn at New York Avill show him all that there is to be seen, 
and all that there is not to be seen in that great city. That the 
Cunard line of steamers will bring him safely back to Liverpool 
in about eleven days, I need not tell to any Englishman, or, as 
I believe, to any American. So much, in the spirit of a guide, 
I vouchsafe to all who are willing to take my counsel, — thereby 
anticipating Murray, and leaving these few pages as a legacy 
to him or to his collaborateurs. 

I cannot say that I like the hotels in those parts, or indeed 
the mode of life at American hotels in general. In order that 
I may not unjustly defame them, I will commence these observ- 
ations by declaring that they are cheap to those who choose 
to practise the economy which they encourage, that the viands 
are profuse in quantity and wholesome in quality, that the at- 
tendance is quick and unsparing, and that travellers are never 
annoyed by that grasping greedy hunger and thirst after francs 
and shillings which disgrace in Europe many English and many 
continental inns. All this is, as must be admitted, great praise ; 
and yet I do not like the American hotels. 

One is in a free country and has come from a country in 
which one has been brought np to hug one's chains, — so at 
least the English traveller is constantly assured — and yet in an 
American inn one can never do as one likes. A terrific gong 
sounds early in the morning, breaking one's sweet slumbers, 
and then a second gong sounding some thirty minutes later, 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 39 

makes you understand that you must proceed to breakfast, 
Avhether you be dressed or no. You certainly can go on with 
your toilet and obtain your meal after half an hour's delay. 
Nobody actually scolds you for so doing, but the breakfast is, 
as they say in this country, " through." You sit down alone, 
and the attendant stands immediately over you. Probably 
there are two so standing. They fill your cup the instant it is 
empty. They tender you fresh food before that w^hich has dis- 
appeared from your plate has been swallowed. They begrudge 
you no amount that you can eat or drink ; but they begrudge 
you a single moment that you sit there neither eating nor 
drinking. This is your fate if you're too late, and therefore as 
a rule you are not late. In that case you form one of a long- 
row of eaters who proceed through their work Avith a solid en- 
ergy that is past all praise. It is wrong to say that Americans 
will not talk at their meals. I never met but few who would 
not talk to me, at any rate till I got to the far w^est ; but I have 
rarely found that they w^ould address me first. Then the din- 
ner comes early ; at least it always does so in New England, 
and the ceremony is much of the same kind. You came there 
to eat, and the food is pressed on you almost ad nauseam. 
But as far as one can see there is no drinking. In these days, 
I am quite aware, that drinking has become improper, even in 
England. We are apt at home to speak of wine as a thing 
tabooed, w^ondering how our fathers lived and swilled. I be- 
lieve that as a fact we drink as much as they did ; but never- 
theless that is our theory. I confess, however, that I like wine. 
It is very wicked, but it seems to me that my dinner goes down 
better with a glass of sherry than Avithout it. As a rule I al- 
ways did get it at hotels in America. But I had no comfort 
with it. Sherry they do not understand at all. Of course I 
am only speaking of hotels. Their claret they get exclusively 
from Mr. Gladstone, and looking at the quality, have a right 
to quarrel even with Mr. Gladstone's 'price. But it is not the 
quality of the wine that I hereby intend to subject to ignominy, 
so much as the want of any opportunity for drinking it. After 
dinner, if all that I hear be true, the gentlemen occasionally 
drop into the hotel bar and " liquor up." Or rather this is not 
done specially after dinner, but without prejudice to the hour 
at any time that may be found desirable. I also have " liquor- 
ed up," but I cannot say that I enjoy the process. I do not 
intend hereby to accuse Americans of drinking much, but I 
maintain that what they do drink, they drink in the most un- 
comfortable manner that the imagination can devise. 



40 NORTH AMERICA. 

The greatest luxury at an English inn is one's tea, one's fire, 
and one's book. Such an arrangement is not practicable at an 
American hotel. Tea, like breakfast, is a great meal, at which 
meat should be eaten, generally with the addition of much 
jelly, jam, and sweet preserves ; but no person delays over his 
tea-cup. I love to have my tea-cup emptied and filled with 
gradual pauses, so that time for oblivion may accrue, and no 
exact record be taken. No such meal is known at American 
hotels. It is possible to hire a separate room and have one's 
meals served in it ; but in doing so a man runs counter to all 
the institutions of the country, and a woman does so equally. 
A stranger does not wish to be viewed askance by all around 
him ; and the rule which holds that men at Rome should do as 
Romans do, if true anywhere, is true in America. Therefore 
I say that in an American inn one can never do as one pleases. 

In what I have here said I do not intend to speak of hotels 
in the largest cities, such as Boston or 'New York. At them 
meals are served in the public room separately, and pretty 
nearly at any or at all hours of the day ; but at them also the 
attendant stands over the unfortunate eater, and drives him. 
The guest feels that he is controlled by laws adapted to the 
usages of the Medes and Persians. He is not the master on 
the occasion, but the slave ; a slave well treated and fattened 
up to the full endurance of humanity ; but yet a slave. 

From Gorham we went on to Island Pond, a station on the 
same Canada Trunk Railway, on a Saturday evening, and were 
forced by the circumstances of the line to pass a melancholy 
Sunday at the place. The cars do not run on Sundays, and run 
but once a day on other days over the whole line ; so that in 
fact the impediment to travelling spreads over two days. Island 
Pond is a lake with an island in it, and the place which has 
taken the name is a small village, about ten years old, standing 
in the midst of uncut forests, and has been created by the rail- 
way. In ten years more there will no doubt be a spreading 
town at Island Pond ; the forests will recede, and men rushing 
out from the crowded cities will find here food and space and 
wealth. For myself I never remain long in such a sjiot with- 
out feeling thankful that it has not been my mission to be a 
pioneer of civilization. 

The farther that I got awny from Boston the less strong did 
I find the feeling of anger against England. There, as I have 
said before, there was a bitter animosity against the mother 
country in that she had shown no open sympathy with the 
Korth. In Maine and New Hampshire I did not find this to 



MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. 41 

be the case to any violent degree. Men spoke of the war as 
openly as they did at Boston, and in speaking to me generally 
connected England with the subject. But they did so simply 
to ask questions as to England's policy. What will she do for 
cotton when her operatives are really pressed ? Will she break 
the blockade ? Will she insist on a right to trade with Charles- 
ton and New Orleans ? I always answered that she would in- 
sist on no such right, if that right were denied to others and 
the denial enforced. England, I took upon myself to say, would 
not break a veritable blockade, let her be driven to what shifts 
she might in providing for her operatives. " Ah ; that's what 
we fear," a very stanch patriot said to me, if words may be 
taken as a proof of stanchness. " If England allies herself with 
the Southerners, all our trouble is for nothing." It was impos- 
sible not to feel that all that was said was complimentary to 
England. It is her sympathy that the Northern men desire, 
to her co-operation that they would willingly trust, on her 
honesty that they would choose to depend. It is the same 
feeling whether it shows itself in anger or in curiosity. An 
American whether he be embarked in politics, in literature, or 
in commerce, desires English admiration, English appreciation 
of his energy, and English encouragement. The anger of Boston 
is but a sign of its affectionate friendliness. What feeling is so 
hot as that of a friend when his dearest friend refuses to share 
his quarrel or to sympathize in his wrongs ? To my thinking 
the men of Boston are wrong and unreasonable in their anger ; 
but were I a man of Boston I should be as wrong and as un- 
reasonable as any of them. All that, however, will come right. 
I will not believe it possible that there should in very truth be 
a quarrel between England and the Northern States. 

In the guidance of those who are not quite aufait at the de- 
tails of American Government, I will here in a few words de- 
scribe the outlines of State Government as it is arranged in 
New Hampshire. The States in this respect are not all alike, 
the modes of election of their officers and periods of service 
being different. Even the franchise is different in different 
States. Universal suffrage is not the rule throughout the 
United States ; though it is I beheve very generally thought 
in England that such is the fact. I need hardly say that the 
laws in the different States may be as various as the different 
legislatures may choose to make them. 

In New Hampshire universal suffrage does prevail ; which 
means that any man may vote who lives in the State, supports 
himself, and assists to support the poor by means of poor rates. 



42 NORTH AMEEICA. 

A governor of tbe State is elected for one year only, but it is 
customary or at any rate not uncustomary to re-elect him for a 
second year. His salary is a thousand dollars a year, or 200/. 
It must be presumed therefore that glory and not money is his 
object. To him is appended a council, by whose opinions he 
must in a great degree be guided. His functions are to the 
State what those of the President are to the country, and for 
the short period of his reign he is as it were a Prime Minister 
of the State with certain very limited regal attributes. He 
however by no means enjoys the regal attribute of doing no 
■wrong. In every State there is an Assembly, consisting of 
two houses of elected representatives ; the Senate, or upper 
house, and the House of Representatives so called. In New 
Hampshire this Assembly, or Parliament, is styled The Gener- 
al Court of New Hampshire. It sits annually ; whereas the 
legislature in many States sits only every other year. Both 
Houses are re-elected every year. This Assembly passes laws 
Avith all the power vested in our Parliament, but such laws ap- 
ply of course only to the State in question. The Governor of 
the State has a veto on all bills passed by the two Houses. 
But, after receipt of his veto, any bill so stopped by the Gov- 
ernor can be passed by a majority of two thirds in each House. 
The General Court generally sits for about ten Aveeks. There 
are in the State eight judges, three Supreme who sit at Con- 
cord, the capital, as a court of appeal both in civil and crimin- 
al matters; and then five lesser judges, who go circuit through 
the State. The salaries of these lesser judges do not exceed 
from 250/. to 300/. a year; but they are, I believe, allowed to 
practise as lawyers in any counties except those in which they 
sit as judges, — being guided in this respect by the same law as 
that which regulates the work of assistant barristers in Ireland. 
The assistant barristers in Ireland are attached to the counties 
as judges at Quarter Sessions, but they practise or may prac- 
tise as advocates in all counties except that to which they are 
so attached. The judges in New Hampshire are appointed by 
the Governor with the assistance of his Council. No judge in 
New Hampshire can hold his seat after he has reached seventy 
years of age. 

So much at the present moment with reference to the Gov- 
ernment of New Hampshire. 



LOWER CANADA. 43 

CHAPTER IV. 

LOWER CANADA. 

The Grand Trunk Railway runs directly from Portland to 
Montreal, which latter town is, in fact, the capital of Canada, 
though it never has been so exclusively, and, as it seems, never is 
to be so, as regards authority, government, and official name. In 
such matters authority and government often say one thing while 
commerce says another ; but commerce always has the best of it, 
and wins the game whatever Government may decree. Albany in 
this way is the capital of the State of New York, as authorized 
by the State Government ; but New York has made herself the 
capital of America, and will remain so. So also Montreal has 
made herself the capital of Canada. The Grand Trunk Railway 
runs fi'om Portland to Montreal ; but there is a branch from Rich- 
mond, a township within the limits of Canada, to Quebec ; so that 
travellers to Quebec, as we were, are not obliged to reach that 
place via Montreal. 

Quebec is the present seat of Canadian Government, its turn 
for that honour having come round some two years ago ; but it is 
about to be deserted in favour of Ottawa, a town which is, in fact, 
still to be built on the river of that name. The public edifices 
are, however, in a state of forwardness ; and if all goes well the 
Governor, the two Councils, and the House of Representatives 
will be there before two years are over, whether there be any town 
to receive them or no. Who can think of Ottawa without bid- 
ding his brothers to row, and reminding them that the stream runs 
fast, that the rapids are near and the daylight past ? I asked, as 
a matter of course, Avhether Quebec was much disgusted at the 
proposed change, and I was told that the feeling was not now very 
strong. Had it been determined to make Montreal the perma- 
nent seat of government Quebec and Toronto would both have 
been up in arms. 

I must confess that in going from the States into Canada, an 
Englishman is struck by the feeling that he is going from a richer 
country into one that is poorer, and from a greater country into 
one that is less. An Englishman going from a foreign land into 
a land which is in one sense his own, of course finds much in the 
change to gratify him. He is able to speak as the master, instead 
of speaking as the visitor. His tongue becomes more free, and he 
is able to fall back to his national habits and national expressions. 



44 NORTH AMERICA. 

He no longer feels tliat he is admitted on sufferance, or that he 
must be careful to respect laws which he does not quite under- 
stand. This feeling was naturally strong in an Englishman in 
passing from the States into Canada at the time of my visit. En- 
glish poHcy at that moment was violently abused by Americans, 
and was upheld as violently in Canada. But, nevertheless, with 
all this, I could not enter Canada without seeing, and hearing, and 
feeling that there was less of enterprise around me there than in 
the States — less of general movement, and less of commercial suc- 
cess. To say why this is so would require a long and very diffi- 
cult discussion, and one which I am not prepared to hold. It 
may be that a dependent country, let the feeling of dependence be 
ever so much modified by powers of self-governance, cannot hold 
its own against countries which are in all respects their own mas- 
ters. Few, I believe, would now maintain that the Northern 
States of America would have risen in commerce as they have 
risen, had they still remained attached to England as colonies. 
If this be so, that privilege of self-rule which they have acquired 
has been the cause of their success. It does not follow as a con- 
sequence that the Canadas fighting their battle alone in the world 
could do as the States have done. Climate, or size, or geographic- 
al position might stand in their way. But I fear that it does fol- 
low, if not as a logical conclusion, at least as a natural result, that 
they never w^ill do so well unless some day they shall so fight 
their battle. It may be argued that Canada has, in fact, the pow- 
er of self-governance ; that she rules herself and makes her own 
laws as England does ; that the Sovereign of England has but a 
veto on those laws, and stands in regard to Canada exactly as she 
does in regard to England. This is so, I believe, by the letter of 
the Constitution, but is not so in reality, and cannot, in truth, be 
so in any colony, even of Great Britain. In England the polit- 
ical power of the Crown is nothing. The Crown has no such 
power, and now-a-days makes no attempt at having any. But the 
political power of the Crown, as it is felt in Canada, is everything. 
The Crown has no such power in England because it must change 
its ministers whenever called upon to do so by the House of Com- 
mons. But the Colonial Minister in Downing Street is the 
Crown's Prime Minister as regards the Colonies, and he is changed, 
not as any Colonial House of Assembly may wish, but in accord- 
ance with the will of the British Commons. Both the Houses in 
Canada — that, namely, of the Representatives, or Lower House, 
and of the Legislative Council, or Upper House — are now elect- 
ive, and are filled without direct influence from the Crown. The 



LOWER CANADA. 45 

power of self-government is as thoroughly developed as perhaps 
may be possible in a colony. But, after all, it is a dependent form 
of government, and as such may perhaps not conduce to so 
thorough a development of the resources of the country as might 
be achieved under a ruling power of its own, to which the welfare 
of Canada itself would be the chief, if not the only object. 

I beg that it may not be considered from this that I would pro- 
pose to Canada to set up for itself at once and declare itself inde- 
pendent. In the first place I do not wish to throw over Canada ; 
and in the next place I do not wish to throw over England. If 
such a separation shall ever take place, I trust that it may be 
caused, not by Canadian violence, but by British generosity. Such 
a separation, however, never can be good till Canada herself shall 
wish it. That she does not wish it yet is certain. If Canada 
ever should wish it, and should ever press for the accomplishment 
of such a wish, she must do so in connection with Nova Scotia 
and New Brunswick. If at any future time there be formed such 
a separate political power, it must include the whole of British 
North America. 

In the meantime, I return to my assertion, that in entering Can- 
ada from the States one clearly comes from a richer to a poorer 
country. When I have said so, I have heard no Canadian abso- 
lutely deny it ; though in refraining from denying it, they have 
usually expressed a general conviction that, in settling himself for 
life, it is better for a man to set up his staff in Canada than in the 
States. " I do not know that we are richer," a Canadian says, 
" but on the whole we are doing better and are happier." Now, 
I regard the golden rules against the love of gold, the '•'•arum irre- 
pertum ei sic melius situm,'' and the rest of it, as very excellent 
when applied to individuals. Such teaching has not much effect, 
perhaps, in inducing men to abstain from wealth, — but such eifect 
as it may have will be good. Men and women do, I suppose, 
learn to be happier when they learn to disregard riches. But 
such a doctrine is ateolutely false as regards a nation. National 
wealth produces education and progress, and through them pro- 
duces plenty of food, good morals, and all else that is good. It 
produces luxury also, and certain evils attendant on luxury. But 
I think it may be clearly shown, and that it is universally ac- 
knowledged, that national wealth produces individual well-being. 
If this be so, the argument of my friend the Canadian is nought. 

To the feeling of a refined gentleman, or of a lady whose eye 
loves to rest always on the beautiful, an agricultural population 
that touches its hat, eats plain victuals, and goes to church is more 



46 NORTH AMERICA. 

picturesque and delightful than the thronged crowd of a great city 
by which a lady and gentleman is hustled without remorse, which 
never touches its hat, and perhaps also never goes to church. 
And as we are always tempted to approve of that which we like, 
and to think that that which is good to us is good altogether, we 
— the refined gentlemen and ladies of England I mean — are very 
apt to prefer the hat-touchers to those who are not hat-touchers. 
In doing so we intend, and wish, and strive to be philanthropical. 
We argue to ourselves that the dear, excellent- lower classes re- 
ceive an immense amount of consoling happiness from that cere- 
mony of hat-touching, and quite pity those who, unfortunately for 
themselves, know nothing about it. I would ask any such lady 
or gentleman whether he or she does not feel a certain amount of 
commiseration for the rudeness of the town-bred artisan, who 
walks about with his hands in his pockets as though he recognized 
a superior in no one. 

But that which is good and pleasant to us, is often not good 
and pleasant altogether. Every man's chief object is himself; 
and the philanthropist should endeavour to regard this question, 
not from his own point of view, but from that which would be 
taken by the individuals for whose happiness he is anxious. The 
honest, happy rustic makes a very pretty picture ; and I hope that 
honest rustics are happy. But the man who earns two shillings 
a day in the country would always prefer to earn five in the town. 
The man who finds himself bound to touch his hat to the squire 
would be glad to dispense with that ceremony, if circumstances 
would permit. A crowd of greasy-coated town artisans with 
grimy hands and pale faces, is not in itself delectable ; but each 
of that crowd has probably more of the goods of life than any ru- 
ral labourer. He thinks more, reads more, feels more, sees more, 
hears more, learns more, and lives more. It is through great cit- 
ies that the civilization of the world has progressed, and the 
charms of life been advanced. Man in his rudest state begins in 
the country, and in his most finished state may retire there. But 
the battle of the world has to be fought in the cities ; and the 
country that shows the greatest city population is ever the one 
that is going most ahead in the world's history. 

If this be so, I say that the argument of my Canadian friend 
was nought. It may be that he does not desire crowded cities 
with dirty, independent artisans ; that to his view small farmers, 
living sparingly but with content on the sweat of their brows, are 
surer signs of a country's prosperity than hives of men and smok- 
ing chimneys. He has, probably, all the upper classes of England 



LOWER CANADA. 47 

with him in so thinking, and as far as I know the upper classes of 
all Europe. But the crowds themselves, the thick masses of which 
are composed those populations which we count by millions, are 
against him. Up in those regions which are watered by the great 
lakes. Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and 
by the St. Lawrence, the country is divided between Canada and 
the States. The cities in Canada were settled long before those 
in the States. Quebec and Montreal were important cities before 
any of the towns belonging to the States had been founded. But 
taking the population of three of each, including the three largest 
Canadian tqwns, we find they are as follows : — In Canada, Quebec 
has 60,000 ; Montreal, 85,000 ; Toronto, 55,000. In the States, 
Chicago has 120,000 ; Detroit, 70,000, and Buffalo, 80,000. If 
the population had been equal, it would have shown a great supe- 
riority in the progress of those belonging to the States, because 
the towns of Canada had so great a start. But the numbers are 
by no means equal, showing instead a vast preponderance in fa- 
vour of the States. There can be no stronger proof that the States 
are advancing faster than Canada, — and in fact doing better than 
Canada. 

Quebec is a very picturesque town, — from its natural advant- 
ages almost as much so as any town I know. Edinburgh, per- 
haps, and Innspruck may beat it. But Quebec has very little to 
recommend it beyond the beauty of its situation. Its public build- 
ings and works of art do not deserve a Ions; narrative. It stands 
at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers ; the 
best part of the town is built high upon the rock, — the rock which 
forms the celebrated plains of Abram ; and the view from thence 
down to the mountains which shut in the St. Lawrence is magnifi- 
cent. The best point of view is, I think, from the esplanade, 
which is distant some five minutes' walk from the hotels. When 
that has been seen by the light of the setting sun, and seen again, 
if possible, by moonlight, the most considerable lion of Quebec may 
be regarded as "done," and may be ticked off from the list. 

The most considerable lion according to my taste. Lions which 
roar merely by the force of association of ideas are not to me very 
valuable beasts. To many the rock over which Wolfe climbed to 
the plains of Abram, and on the summit of which he fell in the 
hour of victory, gives to Quebec its chiefest charm. But I con- 
fess to being somewhat dull in such matters. I can count up 
Wolfe, and realize his glory, and put my hand as it were upon his 
monument, in my own room at home as well as I can at Quebec. 
I do not say this boastingly or with pride ; but truly acknowledg- 



48 NORTH AMERICA. 

ing a deficiency. I have never cared to sit in chairs in which old 
kings have sat, or to have their crowns upon my head. 

Nevertheless, and as a matter of course, I went to see the rock, 
and can only say, as so many have said before me, that it is very 
steep. It is not a rock which I think it would be difficult for any 
ordinarily active man to climb, — providing, of course, that he was 
used to such work. But Wolfe took regiments of men up there 
at night — and that in face of enemies who held the summits. 
One grieves that he should have fallen there and have never tasted 
the sweet cup of his own fame. For fame is sweet, and the praise 
of one's brother men the sweetest draught which a man can drain. 
But now, and for coming ages, Wolfe's name stands higher than 
it probably would have done had he lived to enjoy his reward. 

But there is another very worthy lion near Quebec, — the Falls, 
namely, of Montmorency. They are eight miles from the town, 
and the road lies through the suburb of St. Roch, and the long 
straggling French village of Beauport. These are in themselves 
very interesting, as showing the quiet, orderly, unimpulsive man- 
ner in which the French Canadians live. Such is their charac- 
ter, although there have been such men as Papineau, and although 
there have been times in which English rule has been unpopular 
with the French settlers. As far as I could learn there is no such 
feeling now. These people are quiet, contented ; and as regards 
a sufficiency of the simple staples of living, sufficiently Avell to do. 
They are thrifty ; — but they do not thrive. They do not advance, 
and push ahead, and become a bigger people from year to year as 
settlers in a new country should do. They do not even hold their 
own in comparison with those around them. But has not this 
always been the case with colonists out of France ; and has it not 
always been the case with Roman Catholics when they have been 
forced to measure themselves against Protestants ? As to the ul- 
timate fate in the world of this people, one can hardly form a 
speculation. There are, as nearly as I could learn, about 800,000 
of them in Lower Canada ; but it seems that the wealth and com- 
mercial enterprise of the country is passing out of their hands. 
Montreal, and even Quebec are, I think, becoming less and less 
French eveiy day ; but in the villages and on the small farms the 
French remain, keeping up their language, their habits, and their 
religion. In the cities they are becoming hewers of wood and 
drawers of water. I am inclined to think that the same will ul- 
timately be their fate in the country. Surely one may declare as 
a fact that a Roman Catholic population can never hold its ground 
against one that is Protestant. I do not speak of numbers, for 



LOWEK CANADA. 49 

the Roman Catholics will increase and multiply, and stick by their 
religion, although their religion entails poverty and dependence ; 
as they have done and still do in Ireland. But in progress and 
wealth the Romanists have always gone to the wall when the two 
have been made to compete together. And yet I love their re- 
ligion. There is something beautiful and almost divine in the 
faith and obedience of a true son of the Holy Mother. I some- 
times fancy that I would fain be a Roman Catholic, — if I could ; 
as also I would often wish to be still a child, if that were possible. 

All this is on the way to the Falls of Montmorency. These 
falls are placed exactly at the mouth of the little river of the same 
name, so that it may be said absolutely to fall into the St. Law- 
rence. The people of the country, however, declare that the river 
into which the waters of the Montmorency fall is not the St. Law- 
rence, but the Charles. AVithout a map I do not know that I can 
explain this. The river Charles appears to, and in fact does, run 
into the St. Lawrence just below Quebec. i3ut the waters do not 
mix. The thicker, browner stream of the lesser river still keeps 
the north-eastern bank till it comes to the island of Orleans, which 
lies in the river five or six miles below Quebec. Here or here- 
abouts are the Falls of the Montmorency, and then the great river 
is divided for twenty-five miles by the Isle of Orleans. It is said 
that the waters of the Charles and the St. Lawrence do not mix 
till they meet each other at the foot of this island. 

I do not know that I am particularly happy at describing a 
waterfall, and what little capacity I may have in this way I would 
wish to keep for Niagara. One thing I can say very positively 
about Montmorency, and one piece of advice I can give to those 
who visit the falls. The place from which to see them is not the 
horrible little wooden temple, which has been built immediately 
over them on that side which lies nearest to Quebec. The stran- 
ger is put down at a gate through which a path leads to this tem- 
ple, and at which a woman demands from him twenty-five cents 
for the privilege of entrance. Let him by all means pay the twen- 
ty-five cents. Why should he attempt to see the falls for nothing, 
seeing that this woman has a vested interest in the showing of 
them? I declare that if I thought that I should hinder this woman 
from her perquisites by what I write, I would leave it unwritten, 
and let my readers pursue their course to the temple — to their 
manifest injury. But they will pay the twenty-five cents. Then 
let them cross over the bridge, eschewing the temple, and wander 
round on the open field till they get the view of the falls, and the 
view of Quebec also, from the other side. It is worth the twenty^ 

C 



50 NORTH AMERICA. 

five cents, and the hire of the carriage also. Immediately over 
the falls there was a suspension bridge, of which the supporting, 
or rather non-supporting, pillars are still to be seen. But the 
bridge fell down one day into the river ; and, alas, alas ! with the 
bridge fell down an old woman, and a boy, and a cart, — a cart 
and horse, — and all found a watery grave together in the spray. 
No attempt has been made since that to renew the suspension 
bridge ; but the present wooden bridge has been built higher up, 
in lieu of it. 

Strangers naturally visit Quebec in summer or autumn, seeing 
that a Canada winter is a season with which a man cannot trifle ; 
but I imagine that the mid-winter is the best time for seeing the 
Falls of Montmorency. The water in its fall is dashed into spray, 
and that spray becomes frozen, till a cone of ice is formed imme- 
diately under the cataract, which gradually rises till the temporary 
glacier reaches nearly half-way to the level of the higher river. 
IJp this men climb, — and ladies also, I am told, — and then de- 
scend with pleasant rapidity on sledges of wood, sometimes not 
without an innocent tumble in the descent. As we were at Que- 
bec in September, we did not experience the delights of this pas- 
time. 

As I was too early for the ice cone under the Montmorency 
Falls, so also was I too late to visit the Saguenay river which 
runs into the St. Lawrence, some hundred miles below Quebec. I 
presume that the scenery of the Saguenay is the finest in Canada. 
During the summer steamers run down the St. Lawrence and up 
the Saguenay, but I was too late for them. An offer was made 
to us through the kindness of Sir Edmund Head, who was then 
the Governor-General, of the use of a steam-tug belonging to a 
gentleman who carries on a large commercial enterprise at Chi- 
coutimi, far up the Saguenay ; but an acceptance of this offer 
would have entailed some delay at Quebec, and as we were anxious 
to get into the North Western States before the winter commenced, 
we were obliged with great regret to decline the journey. 

I feel bound to say that a stranger regarding Quebec merely as 
a town, finds very much of which he cannot but complain. The 
foot-paths through the streets are almost entirely of wood, as in- 
deed seems to be general throughout Canada. Wood is of course 
the cheapest material, and though it may not be altogether good 
for such a purpose it would not create animadversion if it were 
kept in tolerable order. But in Quebec the paths are intolerably 
bad. They are full of holes. The boards are rotten and worn in 
some places to dirt. The nails have gone, and the broken planks 



LOWER CANADA. 51 

go up and down under the feet, and in the dark they are absolute- 
ly dangerous. But if the paths are bad the roadways are worse. 
The street through the lower town along the quays is, I think, the 
most disgraceful thoroughfare I ever saw in any town. I believe 
the whole of it, or at any rate a great portion, has been paved with 
wood ; but the boards have been worked into mud, and the ground 
under the boards has been worked into holes, till the street is more 
like the bottom of a filthy ditch than a roadway through one of 
the most thickly populated parts of a city. Had Quebec in Wolfe's 
time been as it is now, Wolfe would have stuck in the mud be- 
tween the river and the rock, before he reached the point which 
he desired to climb. In the upper town the roads are not so bad 
as they are below, but still they are very bad. I was told that 
this arose from disputes among the municipal corporations. Every- 
thing in Canada relating to roads, and a very great deal affecting 
the internal government of the people, is done by these municipal- 
ities. It is made a subject of great boast in Canada that the com- 
munal authorities do carry on so large a part of the public busi- 
ness, and that they do it generally so well, and at so cheap a rate. 
I have nothing to say against this, and as a whole believe that the 
boast is true. I must protest, however, that the streets of the 
greater cities, — for Montreal is nearly as bad as Quebec, — prove 
the rule by a very sad exception. The municipalities of which I 
speak extend, I believe, to all Canada ; the two provinces being di- 
vided into counties, and the counties subdivided into townships to 
which, as a matter of course, the municipalities are attached. 

From Quebec to Montreal there are two modes of travel. 
There are the steamers up the St. Lawrence which, as all the 
world know is, or at any rate hitherto has been, the high road of 
the Canadas ; and there is the Grand Trunk Railway. Passen- 
gers choosing the latter go towards Portland as far as Richmond, 
and there join the main line of the road, passing from Richmond 
on to Montreal. We learned while at Quebec that it behoved us 
not to leave the colony till we had seen the lake and mountains 
of Memphra-Magog, and as we were clearly neglecting our duty 
with regard to the Saguenay, we felt bound to make such amends 
as lay in our power, by deviating from our way to the lake above 
named. In order to do this we were obliged to choose the rail- 
way, and to go back beyond Richmond to the station at Sherbrooke. 
Sherbrooke is a large village on the confines of Canada, and as it 
is on the railway will no doubt become a large town. It is very 
prettily situated on the meeting of two rivers, it has three or four 
different churches, and intends to thrive. It possesses two news- 



52 NORTH AMERICA. 

papers, of the prosperity of which I should be inclined to feel less 
assured. The annual subscription to such a newspaper published 
twice a week is ten shillings per annum. A sale of a thousand 
copies is not considered bad. Such a sale would produce 500/. a 
year, and this would, if entirely devoted to that purpose, give a 
moderate income to a gentleman qualified to conduct a newspaper. 
But the paper and printing must cost something, and the capital 
invested should receive its proper remuneration. And then, — 
such at least is the general idea, — the getting together of news and 
the framing of intelligence is a costly operation. I can only hope 
that all this is paid for by the advertisements, for I must trust that 
"ihe editors do not receive less than the moderate sum above named. 
At Sherbrooke we are still in Lower Canada. Indeed, as regards 
distance, we are when there nearly as far removed from Upper 
Canada as at Quebec. But the race of people here is very differ- 
ent. The French population had made their way down into these 
townships before the English and American war broke out, but 
had not done so in great numbers. The country was then very 
unapproachable, being far to the south of the St. Lawrence, and far 
also from any great line of internal communication towards the 
Atlantic. But, nevertheless, many settlers made their way in here 
from the States ; men who preferred to live under British rule, 
and perhaps doubted the stability of the new order of things. 
They or their children have remained here since, and as the whole 
country has been opened up by the railway many others have 
flocked in. Thus a better class of people than the French hold 
possession of the larger farms, and are on the whole doing well. 
I am told that many Americans are now coming here, driven 
over the borders from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, by 
fears of the war and the weight of taxation. I do not think that 
fears of war or the paying of taxes drive many individuals away 
from home. Men who would be so influenced have not the amount 
of foresight which would induce them to avoid such evils ; or, at 
any rate, such fears would act slowly. Labourers, however, will 
go where work is certain, where work is well paid, and where the 
wages to be earned will give plenty in return. It may be that 
work will become scarce in the States, as it has done with those 
poor jewellers at Attleborough, of whom we spoke, and that food 
will become dear. If this be so, labourers from the States will no 
doubt find their way into Canada. 

From Sherbrooke we went with the mails on a pair-horse Wag- 
gon to Magog. Cross country mails are not interesting to the gen- 
erality of readers, but I have a professional liking for them myself 



LOWER CANADA. 53 

I have spent the best part of my life in looking after and I hope 
in improving such mails, and I always endeavour to do a stroke 
of work when I come across them. I learned on this occasion 
that the conveyance of mails with a pair of horses in Canada costs 
little more than half what is paid for the same work in England 
with one horse, and something less than what is paid in Ireland, 
also for one horse. But in Canada the average pace is only five 
miles an hour. In Ireland it is seven, and the time is accurately 
kept, which does not seem to be the case in Canada. In England 
the pace is eight miles an hour. In Canada and in Ireland these 
conveyances carry passengers ; but in England they are prohibited 
from doing so. In Canada the vehicles are much better got up 
than they are in England, and the horses too look better. Taking 
Ireland as a whole they are more respectable in appearance there 
than in England. From all Avhich it appears that pace is the ar- 
ticle that costs the highest price, and that appearance does not 
go for much in the bill. In Canada the roads are very bad in 
comparison with the English or Irish roads ; but to make up for 
this, the price of forage is very low. 

I have said that the cross mail conveyances in Canada did not 
seem to be very closely bound as to time ; but they are regulated 
by clock-work in comparison with some of them in the United 
States. "Are you going this morning?" I said to a mail-driver 
in Vermont. "I thought you always started in the evening." 
"Wa'U; I guess I do. But it rained some last night, so I jist 
stayed at home." I do not know that I ever felt more shocked in 
my life, and I could hardly keep my tongue off the man. The 
mails, however, would have paid no respect to me in Vermont, and 
I was obliged to walk away crest-fallen. 

We went with the mails from Sherbrooke to a village called 
Magog at the outlet of the lake, and from thence by a steamer up 
the lake to a solitary hotel called the Mountain House, which is 
built at the foot of the mountain on the shore, and which is sur- 
rounded on every side by thick forest. There is no road within 
two miles of the house. The lake therefore is the only highway, 
and that is frozen up for four months in the year. When frozen, 
however, it is still a road, for it is passable for sledges. I have 
seldom been in a house that seemed so remote from the world, and 
so little within reach of doctors, parsons, or butchers. Bakers in 
this country are not required, as all persons make their own bread. 
But in spite of its position the hotel is well kept, and on the whole 
we were more comfortable there than at any other inn in Lower 
Canada. The Mountain House is but five miles from the borders 



54 NORTH AMERICA. 

of Vermont, in which State the head of the lake lies. The steamer 
which brought us runs on to Newport, — or rather from Newport 
to Magog and back again. And Newport is in Vermont. 

The one thing to be done at the Mountain House is the ascent 
of the mountain called the Owl's Head. The world there offers 
nothing else of active enterprise to the traveller, unless fishing be 
considered an active enterprise. I am not capable of fishing, 
therefore we resolved on going up the Owl's Head. To dine in 
the middle of the day is absolutely imperative at these hotels, and 
thus we were driven to select either the morning or the afternoon. 
Evening lights we declared were the best for all views, and there- 
fore we decided on the afternoon. It is but two miles ; but then, 
as we were told more than once by those who had spoken to us on 
the subject, those two miles are not like other miles. *' I doubt 
if the lady can do it," one man said to me. I asked if ladies did 
not sometimes go up. "Yes; young women do, at times," he 
said. After that my wife resolved that she would see the top of 
the Owl's Head, or die in the attempt, and so we started. They 
never think of sending a guide with one in these places, whereas 
in Europe a traveller is not allowed to go a step without one. 
When I asked for one to show us the way up Mount Washington, 
I was told that there were no idle boys about that place. The 
path was indicated to us, and off we started with high hopes. 

I have been up many mountains, and have climbed some that 
were perhaps somewhat dangerous in their ascent. In climbing 
the Owl's Head there is no danger. One is closed in by thick 
trees the whole way. But I doubt if I ever went up a steeper as- 
cent. It was very hard work, but we were not beaten. We 
reached the top, and there sitting down thoroughly enjoyed our 
victory. It was then half-past five o'clock, and the sun was not 
yet absolutely sinking. It did not seem to give us any warning 
that we should especially require its aid, and as the prospect below 
us was very lovely we remained there for a quarter of an hour. 
The ascent of the Owl's Head is certainly a thing to do, and I 
still think, in spite of our following misfortune, that it is a thing 
to do late in the afternoon. The view down upon the lakes and 
the forests around, and on the wooded hills below, is wonderfully 
lovely. I never was on a mountain which gave me a more per- 
fect command of all the country round. But as we arose to de- 
scend we saw a little cloud coming towards us from over New- 
port. 

The little cloud came on with speed, and we had hardly freed 
ourselves from the rocks of the summit before we were surround- 



LOAVER CANADA. 55 

ed by rain. As the rain became thicker, we were surrounded by- 
darkness also, or if not by darkness by so dim a light that it be- 
came a task to find our path. I still thought that the daylight 
had not gone, and that as we descended and so escaped from the 
cloud we should find light enough to guide us. But it was not so. 
The rain soon became a matter of indifference, and so also did the 
mud and briars beneath our feet. Even the steepness of the way 
was almost forgotten as we endeavoured to thread our path through 
the forest before it should become impossible to discern the track. 
A dog had followed us up, and though the beast would not stay 
with us so as to be our guide, he returned ever and anon and made 
us aware of his presence by dashing by us. I may confess now 
that I became much frightened. We were wet through, and a 
night out in the forest would have been unpleasant to us. At last 
I did utterly lose the track. It had become quite dark, so dark 
that we could hardly see each other. We had succeeded in get- 
ting down the steepest and worst part of the mountain, but we 
were still among dense forest-trees, and up to our knees in mud. 
But the people at the Mountain House were Christians, and men 
with lanterns were sent hallooing after us through the dark night. 
When we were thus found we were not many yards from the path, 
but unfortunately on the wrong side of a stream. Through that 
we waded and then made our way in safety to the inn. In spite 
of which misadventure I advise all travellers in Lower Canada to 
go up the Owl's Head. 

On the following day we crossed the lake to Georgeville, and 
drove round another lake called the Massawhippi back to Sher- 
brooke. This was all very well, for it showed us a part of the 
country which is comparatively well tilled, and has been long set- 
tled ; but the Massawhippi itself is not worth a visit. The route 
by which we returned occupies a longer time than the other, and 
is more costly as it must be made in a hired vehicle. The peo- 
ple here are quiet, orderly, and I should say a little slow. It is 
manifest that a strong feeling against the Northern States has 
lately sprung up. This is much to be deprecated, but I cannot 
but say that it is natural. It is not that the Canadians have any 
special Secession feelings, or that they have entered with peculiar 
warmth into the questions of American politics ; but they have 
been vexed and acerbated by the braggadocio of the Northern 
States. They constantly hear that they are to be invaded, and 
translated into citizens of the Union : that British rule is to be 
swept off the Continent, and that the star-spangled banner is to be 
waved over them in pity. The star-spangled banner is in fact a 



56 NORTH AMERICA. 

fine flag, and has waved to some purpose ; but those who live near 

it, and not under it, fancy that they hear too much of it. At the 
present moment the loyalty of both the Canadas to Great Britain 
is beyond all question. From all that I can hear I doubt whether 
this feeling in the Provinces was ever so strong, and under such 
circumstances American abuse of England and American bragga- 
docio is more than usually distasteful. All this abuse and all this 
braggadocio comes to Canada from the Northern States, and there- 
fore the Southern cause is at the present moment the more popu- 
lar with them. 

I have said that the Canadians hereabouts are somewhat slow. 
As we were driving back to Sherbrooke it became necessary that 
we should rest for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and for 
this purpose we stopped at a village inn. It was a large house, 
in which there appeared to be three public sitting-rooms of ample 
size, one of which was occupied as the bar. In this there were 
congregated some six or seven men, seated in arm-chairs round a 
stove, and among these I placed myself No one spoke a word 
either to me or to any one else. No one smoked, and no one read, 
nor did they even whittle sticks. I asked a question first of one 
and then of another, and was answered with monosyllables. So I 
gave up any hope in that direction, and sat staring at the big stove 
in the middle of the room, as the others did. Presently another 
stranger entered, having arrived in a waggon as I had done. He 
entered the room and sat down, addressing no one, and addressed 
by no one. After a while, however, he spoke. " Will there be 
any chance of dinner here V he said. " I guess there'll be dinner 
by-and-by," answered the landlord, and then there was silence for 
another ten minutes, during which the stranger stared at the stove. 
" Is that dinner any way ready ':" he asked again. " I guess it 
is," said the landlord. And then the stranger went out to see after 
his dinner himself. "When we started at the end of an hour no- 
body said anything to us. The driver " hitched" on the horses, 
as they call it, and we started on our way, having been charged 
nothing for our accommodation. That some profit arose from the 
horse provender is to be hoped. 

On the following day we reached Montreal, which, as I have 
said before, is the commercial capital of the two Provinces. This 
question of the capitals is at the present moment a subject of great 
interest in Canada, but as I shall be driven to say something on 
the matter when I report myself as being at Ottawa, I will refrain 
now. There are two special public affairs at the present moment 
to interest a traveller in Canada. The first I have named, and 



LOWER CANADA. 57 

the second is the Grand Trunk Railway. I have already stated 
what is the course of this line. It runs from the Western State of 
Michigan to Portland on the Atlantic in the State of Maine, sweep- 
ing the whole length of Canada in its route. It was originally 
made by three Companies. The Atlantic and St. Lawrence con- 
structed it from Portland to Island Pond on the borders of the 
States. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic took it from the South 
Eastern side of the river at Montreal to the same point, viz., Isl- 
and Pond. And the Grand Trunk Company have made it from 
Detroit to Montreal, crossing the river there with a stupendous 
tubular bridge, and have also made the branch connecting the main 
line with Quebec and Riviere du Loup. This latter company is 
now incorporated with the St. Lawrence and Atlantic, but has only 
leased the portion of the line running through the States. This 
they have done, guaranteeing the shareholders an interest of six 
per cent. There never was a grander enterprise set on foot. I 
will not say there never was one more unfortunate, for is there not 
the Great Eastern, which by the weight and constancy of its fail- 
ures demands for itself a proud pre-eminence of misfortune ? But 
surely the Grand Trunk comes next to it. I presume it to be 
quite out of the question that the shareholders should get any in- 
terest whatever on their shares for years. The company when I 
was at Montreal had not paid the interest due to the Atlantic and 
St. Lawrence Company for the last year, and there was a doubt 
whether the lease would not be broken. No party that had ad- 
vanced money to the undertaking was able to recover what had 
been advanced. I believe that one firm in London had lent nearly 
a million to the Company and is now willing to accept half the 
sum so lent in quittance of the whole debt. In 1860 the line 
could not carry the freight that offered, not having or being able 
to obtain the necessary rolling stock ; and on all sides I heard 
men discussing whether the line would be kept open for traffic. 
The Government of Canada advanced to the Company three mil- 
lions of money, with an understanding that neither interest nor 
principal should be demanded till all other debts were paid, and 
all shareholders in receipt of six per cent, interest. But the three 
rnillions were clogged with conditions which, though they have 
been of service to the country, have been so expensive to the Com- 
pany that it is hardly more solvent with it than it would have 
been without it. As it is, the whole property seems to be involved 
in ruin ; and yet the line is one of the grandest commercial con- 
ceptions that was ever carried out on the face of the globe, and in 

C2 



58 NORTH AMERICA. 

the process of a few years will do more to make bread cheap in 
England than any other single enterprise that exists. 

I do not know that blame is to be attached to any one. I at 
least attach no such blame. Probably it might be easy now to 
show that the road might have been made with sufficient accom- 
modation for ordinary purposes without some of the more cost- 
ly details. The great tubular bridge on which was expended 
1,300,000/. might, I should think, have been dispensed with. The 
Detroit end of the line might have been left for later time. As it 
stands now, however, it is a wonderful operation carried to a suc- 
cessful issue as far as the public are concerned, and one can only 
grieve that it should be so absolute a failure to those who have 
placed their money in it. There are schemes which seem to be too 
big for men to work out with any ordinary regard to profit and 
loss. The Great Eastern is one, and this is another. The na- 
tional advantage arising from such enterprises is immense ; but the 
wonder is that men should be found willing to embark their money 
where the risk is so great, and the return even hoped for is so 
small. 

While I was in Canada some gentlemen were there from the 
Lower Provinces — Nova Scotia, that is, and New Brunswick — agi- 
tating the subject of another great line of railway from Quebec to 
Halifax. The project is one in favour of which very much may 
be said. In a national point of view an Englishman or a Cana- 
dian cannot but regret that there should be no winter mode of exit 
from, or entrance to, Canada, except through the United States. 
The St. Lawrence is blocked up for four or five months in winter, 
and the steamers which run to Quebec in the summer run to Port- 
land during the season of ice. There is at present no mode of pub- 
lic conveyance between the Canadas and the Lower Provinces, 
and an immense district of country on the borders of Lower Can- 
ada, through New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia is now abso- 
lutely closed against civilization, which by such a railway would 
be opened up to the light of day. We all know how much the 
want of such a road was felt when our troops were being forward- 
ed to Canada during the last winter. It was necessary they should 
reach their destiny without delay; and as the river was closed, 
and the passing of troops through the States was of course out of 
the question, that long overland journey across Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick became a necessity. It would certainly be a very 
great thing for British interests if a direct line could be made from 
such a port as Halifax, a port which is open throughout the whole 
year, up into the Canadas. If these Colonies belonged to France 



LOWER CANADA. 59 

or to any other despotic Government, the thing would be done. 
But the Colonies do not belong to any despotic Government. 

Such a line would in fact be a continuance of the Grand Trunk ; 
and who that looks at the present state of the finances of the 
Grand Trunk can think it to be on the cards that private enter- 
prise should come forward with more money, — with more millions ? 
The idea is that England will advance the money, and that the 
English House of Commons will guarantee the interest, with some 
counter-guarantee from the Colonies that this interest shall be 
duly paid. But it would seem that if such Colonial guarantee is 
to go for anything, the Colonies might raise the money in the mon- 
ey market without the intervention of the British House of Com- 
mons. 

Montreal is an exceedingly good commercial town, and business 
there is brisk. It has now 85,000 inhabitants. Having said that 
of it, I do not know what more there is left to say. Yes ; one 
word there is to say of Sir William Logan the creator of the Ge- 
ological Museum there and the head of all matters geological 
throughout the Province. While he was explaining to me with 
admirable perspicuity the result of investigations into which he 
had poured his whole heart, I stood by understanding almost noth- 
ing, but envying everything. That I understood almost nothing, 
I know he perceived. That, ever and anon, with all his gracious- 
ness became apparent. But I wonder whether he perceived also 
that I did envy everything. I have listened to geologists by the 
hour before — have had to listen to them, desirous simply of escape. 
I have listened and understood absolutely nothing, and have only 
wished myself away. But I could have listened to Sir WiUiam 
Logan for the whole day, if time allowed. I found even in that 
hour that some ideas found their way through to me, and I begnii 
to fancy that even I could become a geologist at Montreal. 

Over and beyond Sir William Logan there is at Montreal for 
strangers the drive round the mountain, not very exciting ; and 
there is the tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence. This, it must 
be understood, is not made in one tube, as is that over the Menai 
Straits, but is divided into, I think, thirteen tubes. To the eye 
there appear to be twenty-five tubes ; but each of the six side tubes 
is supported by a pier in the middle. A great part of the expense 
of the bridge was incurred in sinking the shafts for these piers. 



CO NOKTU AMEKICA. 

CHAPTER V. 

UPPER CANADA. 

Ottawa is in Upper Canada, but crossing the suspension 
bridge from Ottawa into Hull the traveller is in Lower Canada. 
It is therefore exactly in the confines, and has been chosen as 
the site of the new Government capital very much for this rea- 
son. Other reasons have, no doubt, had a share in the decision. 
At the time when the choice was made Ottawa was not large 
enough to create the jealousy of the more populous towns. 
Though not on the main line of railway, it was connected with 
it by a branch railway, and it is also connected with the St. 
Lawrence by water communication. And then it stands nobly 
on a magnificent river, with high overhanging rock, and a natu- 
ral grandeur of position which has perhaps gone far in recom- 
mending it to those whose voice in the matter has been poten- 
tial. Having the world of Canada from whence to choose the 
site of a new town, the choosers have certainly chosen well. It 
is another question whether or no a new town should have been 
deemed necessary. 

Perhaps it may be well to explain the circumstances under 
which it was thought expedient thus to establish a new Cana- 
dian capital. In 1841 when Lord Sydenham was Governor 
General of the Provinces, the two Canadas, separate till then, 
were united under one Government. At that time the people 
of Low^er or French Canada, and the people of Upper or En- 
glish Canada differed much more in their habits and language 
thar they do now. I do not know that the English have be- 
come in any way Gallicized, but the French have been very ma- 
terially Anglicized. But while this has been in progress, na- 
tional jealousy has been at work ; and even yet that national 
jealousy is not at an end. While the two provinces were di- 
vided there were, of course, two capitals, and two seats of Gov- 
ernment. These were at Quebec for Lower Canada, and at To- 
ronto for Upper Canada, both which towns are centrically situ- 
ated as regards the respective provinces. When the union was 
efiected, it was deemed expedient that there should be but one 
capital ; and the small town of Kingstown was selected, which 
is situated on the Lower end of Lake Ontario in the Upper 
Province. But Kingstown was found to be inconvenient, lack- 
ing space and accommodation for those who had to follow the 
Government, and the Governor removed it and himself to 



UPPER CANADA. 61 

Montreal. Montreal is in the Lower Province, but is very cen- 
tral to both the provinces; and it is, moreover, the chief town 
in Canada. This would have done very Avell, but for an unfore- 
seen misfortune. 

It will be remembered by most readers that in 1837 took place 
the Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion, of which those *\vho were 
then old enough to be politicians heard so much in England. 
I am not going back to recount the history of the period, other- 
wise than to say that the English Canadians at that time, in 
withstanding and combating the rebels, did considerable injury 
to the property of certain French Canadians, and that when the 
rebellion had blown over and those in fault had been pardoned, 
a question arose whether or no the Government should make 
good the losses of those French Canadians who had been in- 
jured. The English Canadians protested that it would be 
monstrous that they should be taxed to repair damages suffer- 
ed by rebels, and made necessary in the suppression of rebel- 
lion. The French Canadians declared that the rebellion had 
been only a just assertion of their rights, that if there had been 
crime on the part of those who took up arms that crime had 
been condoned, and that the damages had not fallen exclusive- 
ly or even chiefly on those who had done so. I will give no 
opinion on the merits of the question, but simply say that blood 
ran very hot when it was discussed. At last the Houses of the 
Provincial Parliament, then assembled at Montreal, decreed 
that the losses should be made good by the public treasury ; 
and the English mob in Montreal, when this decree became 
known, was roused to great wrath by a decision which seemed 
to be condemnatory ofEnglish loyalty. It pelted Lord Elgin, 
the Governor General, with rotten eggs, and burned down the 
Parliament House. Hence, there arose, not unnaturally, a 
strong feeling of anger on the part of the local Government 
against Montreal ; and moreover there was no longer a House 
in which the Parliament could be held in that town. For 
these conjoint reasons it was decided to move the seat of Gov- 
ernment again, and it was resolved that the Governor and the 
Parliament should sit alternately at Toronto in Upper Canada, 
and at Quebec in Lower Canada, remaining four years at each 
place. They went at first to Toronto for two years only, hav- 
ing agreed that they should be there on this occasion only for 
the remainder of the term of the then Parliament. After that 
they were at Quebec for four years ; then at Toronto for four ; 
and now are again, at Quebec. But this arrangement has been 
found very inconvenient. In the first place there is a great na- 



62 NORTH AMERICA. 

tional expenditure incurred in moving old records, and in keep- 
ing double records, in moving the library, and as I have been 
informed even the pictures. The Government clerks also are 
called on to move as the Government moves ; and though an 
allowance is made to them from the national purse to cover 
their loss, the arrangement has nevertheless been felt by them 
to be a grievance, as may be well understood. The accommo- 
dation also for the ministers of the Government, and for mem- 
bers of the two Houses has been insufficient. Hotels, lodgings, 
and furnished houses could not be provided to the extent re- 
quired, seeing that they would be left nearly empty for every 
alternate space of four years. Indeed it needs but little argu- 
ment to prove that the plan adopted must have been a thor- 
oughly uncomfortable plan, and the wonder is that it should 
have been adopted. Lower Canada had undertaken to make 
all her leading citizens wretched, providing Upper Canada 
would treat hers with equal severity. This has now gone on 
for some twelve years, and as the system was found to be an 
unendurable nuisance it has been at last admitted that some 
steps must be taken towards selecting one caioital for the coun- 
try. 

I should here, in justice to the Canadians, state a remark 
made to me on this matter by one of the present leading poli- 
ticians of the colony. I cannot think that the migratory scheme 
was good ; but he defended it, asserting that it had done very 
much to amalgamate the people of the two provinces ; that it 
had brought Lower Canadians into Upper Canada, and Upper 
Canadians into Lower Canada, teaching English to those who 
spoke only French before, and making each pleasantly acquaint- 
ed with the other. I have no doubt that something, — perhaps 
much, — has been done in this way ; but valuable as the result 
may have been, I cannot think it worth the cost of the means 
employed. The best answer to the above argument consists in 
the undoubted fact that a migratory Government would never 
have been established for such a reason. It was so established 
because Montreal, the central town, had given offence, and be- 
cause the jealousy of the provinces against each other w^ould 
not admit of the Government being placed entirely at Quebec, 
or entirely at Toronto. 

But it was necessary that some step should be taken ; and 
as it was found to be unlikely that any resolution should be 
reached by the joint provinces themselves, it was loyally and 
wisely determined to refer the matter to the Queen. That Her 
Majesty has constitutionally the power to call the Parliament 



UPPER CANADA. 63 

of Canada at any town of Canada which she may select, admits, 
I conceive, of no doubt. It is, I imagine, within lier prerogative 
to call the Parliament of England where she may please within 
that realm, though her lieges would be somewhat startled if it 
were called otherwhere than in London. It was therefore well 
done to ask Her Majesty to act as arbiter in the matter. But 
there are not wanting those in Canada who say that in referring 
the matter to the Queen it was in truth referring it to those by 
whom very many of the Canadians were least wilhng to be guid- 
ed in the matter ; to the Governor General namely, and the Co- 
lonial Secretary. Many indeed in Canada now declare that the 
decision simply placed the matter in the hands of the Governor 
General. 

Be that as it may, I do not think that any unbiassed traveller 
will doubt that the best possible selection has been made, pre- 
suming always, as we may presume in the discussion, that Mon- 
treal could not be selected. I take for granted that the rejec- 
tion of Montreal was regarded as a sine quel non in the decis- 
ion. To me it appears grievous that this should have been so. 
It is a great thing for any country to have a large, leading, 
world-known city, and I think that the Government should com- 
bine with the commerce of the country in carrying out this ob- 
ject. But commerce can do a great deal more for Government 
than Government can do for commerce. Government has se- 
lected Ottawa as the capital of Canada; but commerce has al- 
ready made Montreal the capital, and Montreal will be the chief 
city of Canada, let Government do what it may to foster the 
other town. The idea of spiting a town because there has been 
a row in it seems to me to be preposterous. The row was not 
the work of those who have made Montreal rich and respecta- 
ble. Montreal is more centrical than Ottawa, — nay, it is as 
nearly centrical as any town can be. It is easier to get to Mon- 
treal from Toronto, than to Ottawa ; — and if from Toronto, then 
from all that distant portion of Upper Canada, back of Toronto. 
To all Lower Canada Montreal is, as a matter of course, much 
easier of access than Ottawa. But having said so much in fa- 
vour of Montreal, I will again admit that, putting aside Mon- 
treal, the best possible selection has been made. 

When Ottawa was named, no time was lost in setting to 
work to prepare for the new migration. In 1859 the Parlia- 
ment was removed to Quebec, with the understanding that it 
should remain there till the new buildings should be completed. 
These buildings were absolutely commenced in April 1860, and 
it was, and I believe still is, expected that they will be com- 



64 NORTH AMERICA. 

pleted in 1863. I am now writing in the winter of 1861 ; and, 
as is necessary in Canadian winters, the works are suspended. 
But unfortunately they were suspended in the early part of Oc- 
tober, — on the 1st of October, — whereas they might have been 
continued, as far as the season is concerned, up to the end of 
ISTovember. We reached Ottawa on the 3rd of October, and 
more than a thousand men had then been just dismissed. All 
the money in hand had been expended, and the Government, — 
so it was said, — could give no more money till Parliament should 
meet again. This was most unfortunate. In the first place the 
suspension was against the contract as made with the contract- 
ors for the building; in the next place there was the delay; 
and then, worst of all, the question again became agitated wheth- 
er the colonial legislature were really in earnest with reference 
to Ottawa. Many men of mark in the colony were still anxious 
— I believe are still anxious, — to put an end to the Ottawa 
scheme, and think that there still exists for them a chance of 
success. And very many men who are not of mark are thus 
united, and a feeling of doubt on the subject has been created. 
225,000^. has already been spent on these buildings, and I have 
no doubt myself that they will be duly completed, and duly used. 
We went up to the new town by boat, taking the course of 
the river Ottawa. We passed St. Ann's, but no one at St. 
Ann's seemed to know anything of the brothers who were to 
rest there on their weary oars. At Maxwellstown I could hear 
nothing of Annie Laurie or of her trysting place on the braes, 
and the turnpike man at Tara could tell me nothing of the site 
of the hall, and had never even heard of the harp. When I go 
down South I shall expect to find that the negro melodies have 
not yet reached " Old Virginie." This boat conveyance from 
Montreal to Ottawa is not all that could be wished in conven- 
ience, for it is allied too closely with railway travelling. Those 
who use it leave Montreal by a railway; after nine miles, they 
are changed into a steamboat. Then they encounter another 
railway, and at last reach Ottawa in a second steamboat. But 
the river is seen, and a better idea of the country is obtained 
than can be had solely from the railway cars. The scenery is 
by no means grand, nor is it strikingly picturesque ; but it is 
in its way interesting. For a long portion of the river the old 
primeval forests come down close to the water's edge, and in 
the fall of the year the brilliant colouring is very lovely. It 
should not be imagined, — as I think it often is imagined, — that 
these forests are made up of splendid trees, or that splendid 
trees are even common. When timber grows on undrained 



UPPER CANADA. 65 

ground, and when it is uncared for, it does not seem to ap- 
proach nearer to its perfection than wheat or grass do under 
similar circumstances. Seen from a little distance the colour 
and effect is good, but the trees themselves have shallow roots 
and grow up tall, narrow, and shapeless. It necessarily is so 
with all timber that is not thinned in its growth. When fine 
forest trees are found, and are left standing alone by any culti- 
vator who may have taste enough to wish for such adornment, 
they almost invariably die. They are robbed of the sickly shel- 
ter by which they have been surrounded ; the hot sun strikes 
the uncovered fibres of the roots, and the poor solitary invalid 
languishes and at last dies. 

As one ascends the river, which by its breadth forms itself 
into lakes, one is shown Indian villages clustering down upon 
the bank. Some years ago these Indians were rich, for the 
price of furs, in which they dealt, Avas high ; but furs have be- 
come cheaper, and the beavers with which they used to trade 
are almost valueless. That a change in the fashion of hats 
should have assisted to polish these poor fellows off the face of 
creation must, one may suppose, be very unintelligible to them ; 
but nevertheless it is probably a subject of deep speculation. 
If the reading world were to take to sermons again and es- 
chew their novels, Messrs. Thackeray, Dickens, and some others 
would look about them and inquire into the causes of such a 
change with considerable acuteness. They might not, perhaps, 
hit the truth, and these Indians are much in that predicament. 
It is said that very few pure-blooded Indians are now to be 
found in their villages, but I doubt whether this is not errone- 
ous. The children of the Indians are now fed upon baked 
bread, and on cooked meat, and are brought up in houses. 
They are nursed somewhat as the children of the white men 
are nursed ; and these practices no doubt have done much to- 
wards altering their appearance. The negroes who have been 
bred in the States, and whose fathers have been so bred before 
them, differ both in colour and form from their brothers who 
have been born and nurtured in Africa. 

I said in the last chapter that the city of Ottawa was still 
to be built ; but I must explain, lest I should draw down on 
my head the wrath of the Ottawaites, that the place already 
contains a population of 15,000 inhabitants. As, however, it is 
being prepared for four times that number — for eight times 
that number let us hope — and as it straggles over a vast extent 
of ground, it gives one an idea of a city in an active course 
of preparation. In England we know nothing about unbuilt 



66 NORTH AMERICA. 

cities. With us four or five blocks of streets together never 
a.ssume that ugly, unfledged appearance which belongs to the 
half-finished carcase of a house, as they do so often on the oth- 
er side of the Atlantic. Ottawa is preparing for itself broad 
streets, and grand thoroughfares. The buildings already ex- 
tend over a length considerably exceeding two miles, and half 
a dozen hotels have been opened, which, if I were writing a 
guide-book in a complimentary tone, it would be my duty to 
describe as first-rate. But the half-dozen first-rate hotels, though 
open, as yet enjoy but a moderate amount of custom. All this 
justifies me, I think, in saying that the city has as yet to get 
itself built. The manner in which this is being done justifies 
me also in saying that the Ottawaites are going about their 
task with a worthy zeal. 

To me I confess that the nature of the situation has great 
charms, — regarding it as the site for a town. It is not on a 
plain, and from the form of the rock overhanging the river, and 
of the hill that falls from thence down to the Avater, it has been 
found impracticable to lay out the place in right-angled paral- 
lelograms. A right-angled parallelogramical city, such as are 
Philadelphia and the new portion of JSTew York, is from its very 
nature odious to me. I know that much may be said in its fa- 
vour — that drainage and gas-pipes come easier to such a shajDC, 
and that ground can be better economized. Nevertheless I 
prefer a street that is forced to twist itself about. I enjoy the 
narrowness of Temple Bar, and the misshapen curvature of 
Pickett Street. The disreputable dinginess of Holywell Street 
is dear to me, and I love to thread my Avay up by the Olympic 
into Covent Garden. Fifth Avenue in New York is as grand 
as paint and glass can make it; but I would not live in a palace 
in Fifth Avenue if the corporation of the city would pay my 
baker's and butcher's bills. 

The town of Ottawa lies between two waterfalls. The up- 
per one, or Rideau Fall, is formed by the confluence of a small 
river with the larger one ; and the lower fall — designated as 
lower because it is at the foot of the hill, though it is higher 
up the Ottawa river — is called the Chaudiere, from its resem- 
blance to a boiling kettle. This is on the Ottawa river itself 
The Rideau fall is divided into two branches, thus forming an 
island in the middle as is the case at Niagara. It is pretty 
enough, and worth visiting, even were it further from the town 
than it is ; but by those who have hunted out many cataracts 
in their travels it will not be considered very remarkable. The 
Chaudiere fall I did think very remarkable. It is of trifling 



UPPER CANADA. 67 

depth, being formed by fractures in the rocky bed of the river; 
but the waters have so cut the rock as to create beautiful forms 
in the rush which they make in their descent. Strangers are 
told to look at these falls from the suspension bridge; and it 
is well that they should do so. But in so looking at them 
they obtain but a very small part of their effect. On the Otta- 
wa side of the bridge is a brewery, Avhich brewery is surround- 
ed by a huge timber-yard. This timber-yard I found to be very 
muddy, and the passing and repassing through it is a work of 
trouble ; but nevertheless let the traveller by all means make 
his way through the mud, and scramble over the timber, and 
cross the plank bridges which traverse the streams of the saw- 
mills, and thus take himself to the outer edge of the woodwork 
over the water. If he will then seat himself, about the hour of 
sunset, he will see the Chaudiere fall aright. 

But the glory of Ottawa will be — and, indeed, already is — 
the set of public buildings which is now being erected on the 
rock which guards as it were the town from the river. How 
much of the excellence of these buildings may be due to the 
taste of Sir Edmund Head, the late Governor, I do not know. 
That he has greatly interested himself in the subject is well 
known : and as the style of the different buildings is so much 
alike as to make one whole, though the designs of different 
architects were selected, and these different architects employ- 
ed, I imagine that considerable alterations must have been 
made in the original drawings. There are three buildings, 
forming three sides of a quadrangle ; but they are not joined, 
the vacant spaces at the corner being of considerable extent. 
The fourth side of the quadrangle opens upon one of the prin- 
cipal streets of the town. The centre building is intended for 
the Houses of Parliament, and the two side buildings for the 
Government offices. Of the first Messrs. Fuller and Jones are 
the architects, and of the latter Messrs. Stent and Laver. I 
did not have the pleasure of meeting any of these gentlemen ; 
but I take upon myself to say that as regards purity of art and 
manliness of conception their joint work is entitled to the A^ery 
highest praise. How far the buildings may be well arranged 
for the required purposes, how far they may be economical in 
construction, or specially adapted to the severe climate of the 
country, I can not say ; but I have no hesitation in risking my 
reputation for judgment in giving my warmest commendation 
to them as regards beauty of outline and truthful nobility of 
detail. 

I will not attempt to describe them, for I should interest no 



CS NORTH AI^IERICA. 

one in doing so, and sliould certainly fail in my attempt to 
make any reader understand me. I know no modern Gothic 
purer of its kind, or less sullied with fictitious ornamentation. 
Onr own Houses of Parliament are very fine, but it is, I be- 
lieve, generally felt that the ornamentation is too minute ; and, 
moreover, it may be questioned whether perpendicular Gothic 
is capable of the highest nobility which architecture can achieve. 
I do not pretend to say that these Canadian public buildings 
will reach that highest nobility. They must be finished before 
any final judgment can be pronounced ; but I do feel very cer- 
tain that that final judgment will be greatly in their favour. 
The total frontage of the quadrangle, including the side build- 
ings, is 1,200 feet; that of the centre buildings is 475. As I 
have said before, £225,000 has already been expended, and it 
is estimated that the total cost, including the arrangement and 
decoration of the ground behind the building and in the quad- 
rangle, will be half a million. 

The buildings front upon what will, I suppose, be the prin- 
cipal street of Ottawa, and they stand upon a rock looking im- 
mediately down upon the river. In this way they are blessed 
with a site peculiarly happy. Indeed I cannot at this moment 
remember any so much so. The castle of Edinburgh stands 
very well ; but then, like many other castles, it stands on a sum- 
mit by itself, and can only be approached by a steep ascent. 
These buildings at Ottawa, though they look down from a 
grand eminence immediately on the river, are approached from 
the town without any ascent. The rock, though it falls almost 
precipitously down to the water, is covered with trees and 
shrubs, and then the river that runs beneath is rapid, bright, 
and picturesque in the irregularity of all its lines. The view 
from the back of the library, up to the Chaudiere falls, and to 
the saw-mills by which they are surrounded, is very lovely. 
So that I will say again, that I know no site for such a set of 
buildings so happy as regards both beauty and grandeur. It 
is intended that the library, of which the walls were only ten 
feet above the ground when I was there, shall be an octagonal 
building, in shape and outward character like the chapter-house 
of a cathedral. This structure will, I presume, be surrounded 
by gravel walks and green sward. Of the library there is a 
large model showing all the details of the architecture ; and if 
that model be ultimately followed, this building alone will be 
worthy of a visit from English tourists. To me it was very 
wonderful to find such an edifice in the course of erection on 
the banks of a -wild river, almost at the back of Canada. But 



UPPER CANADA. 69 

if ever I visit Canada again it will be to see those buildings 
when completed. 

And now, like all friendly critics, having bestowed my mod- 
icum of praise, I must proceed to find fault. I cannot bring 
myself to administer my sugar-plum without adding to it some 
bitter morsel by way of antidote. The building to the left of 
the quadrangle as it is entered is deficient in length, and on 
that account appears mean to the eye. The two side buildings 
are brought up close to the street, so that each has a frontage 
immediately on the street. Such being the case they should 
be of equal length, or nearly so. Had the centre of one fronted 
the centre of the other, a difference of length might have been 
allowed ; but in this case the side front of the smaller one 
would not have reached the street. As it is, the space be- 
tween the main building and the smaller wing is dispropor- 
tionably large, and the very distance at which it stands will, I 
fear, give to it that appearance of meanness of which I have 
spoken. The clerk of the works, who explained to me -with 
much courtesy the plan of the buildings, stated that the design 
of this wing was capable of elongation, and had been expressly 
prepared with that object. If this be so, I trust that the de- 
fect will be remedied. 

The great trade of Canada is lumbering ; and lumbering con- 
sists in cutting down pine trees up in the far distant forests, in 
hewing or sawing them into shape for market, and getting them 
down the rivers to Quebec, from whence they are exported to 
Europe, and chiefly to England. Timber in Canada is called 
lumber ; those engaged in the trade are called lumberers, and 
the business itself is called lumbering. After a lapse of time it 
must no doubt become monotonous to those engaged in it, and 
the name is not engaging; but there is much about it that is 
very picturesque. A saw-mill worked by water power is al-^ 
most always a pretty object, and stacks .of new cut timber arv 
pleasant to the smell, and group themselves not amiss on the 
water's edge. If I had the time, and were a year or two young- 
er, I should love well to go up lumbering into the woods. The 
men for this purpose are hired in the fall of the year, and are 
sent up hundreds of miles away to the pine forests in strong 
gangs. Everything is there found for them. They make log 
huts for their shelter, and food of the best and the strongest is 
taken up for their diet. But no strong drink of any kind is al- 
lowed, nor is any within reach of the men. There are no pub- 
lics, no shebeen houses, no grog-shops. Sobriety is an enforced 
virtue ; and so much is this considered by the masters, and un- 



70 NORTH AMEEICA. 

derstood by the men, that very little contraband work is done 
in the way of taking up spirits to these settlements. It may 
be said that the work np in the forests is done with the assist- 
ance of no stronger drink than tea ; and it is very hard work. 
There cannot be much work that is harder; and it is done 
amidst the snows and forests of a Canadian winter. A con- 
vict in Bermuda cannot get through his daily eight hours of 
light labour without an allowance of rum ; but a Canadian lum- 
berer can manage to do his daily task on tea without milk. 
These men, however, are by no means teetotallers. When they 
come back to the towns they break out, and reward themselves 
for their long enforced moderation. The wages I found to be 
very various, running from thirteen or fourteen dollars a month 
to twenty-eight or thirty, according to the nature of the work. 
The men who cut down the trees receive more than those who 
hew them when down, and these again more than the under 
class who make the roads and clear the ground. These money 
wages, however, are in addition to their diet. The operation 
requiring the most skill is that of marking the trees for the axe. 
The largest only are worth cutting; and form and soundness 
must also be considered. 

But if I were about to visit a party of lumberers in the for- 
est, I should not be disposed to pass a whole winter with them. 
Even of a very good thing one may have too much. I would 
go up in the spring, when the rafts are being formed in the 
small tributary streams, and I would come down upon one of 
them, shooting the rapids of the rivers as soon as the first fresh- 
ets had left the way open. A freshet in the rivers is the rush 
of waters occasioned by melting snow and ice. The first fresh- 
ets take down the winter waters of the nearer lakes and rivers. 
Then the streams become for a time navigable, and the rafts go 
down. After that comes the second freshet, occasioned by the 
melting of far-off snow and ice, up in the great northern lakes 
which are little known. These rafts are of immense construc- 
tion, such as those which we have seen on the Rhone and 
Rhine, and often contain timber to the value of two, three, and 
four thousand pounds. At the rapids the large rafts are, as it 
were, unyoked, and divided into small portions, which go down 
separately. The excitement and motion of such transit must, 
I should say, be very joyous. I was told that the Prince of 
Wales desired to go down a rapid on a raft, but that the men 
in charge would not undertake to say that there was no possi- 
ble danger. Whereupon those Avho accompanied the prince 
requested his Royal Highness to- forbear. I fear that in these 



UPPER CANADA. 7l 

careful days crowned heads and their heirs must often find 
themselves in the position of Sancho at the banquet. The sail- 
or prince who came after his brother was allowed to go down 
a rapid, and got, as I was told, rather a rough bump as he did 
so. 

Ottawa is a great place for these timber rafts. Indeed, it 
may, I think, be called the head-quarters of timber for the 
world. Nearly all the best pine wood comes down the Otta- 
wa and its tributaries. The other rivers by which timber is 
brought down to the St. Lawrence are chiefly the St. Maurice, 
the Madawaska, and the Saguenay ; but the Ottawa and its 
tributaries Avater 75,000 square miles ; whereas the other three 
rivers with their tributaries water only 53,000. The timber 
from the Ottawa and St. Maurice finds its way down the St. 
Lawrence to Quebec, where, however, it loses the Avhole of its 
picturesque character. The Saguenay and the Madawaska fall 
into the St. Lawrence below Quebec. 

From Ottawa we went by rail to Prescott, which is surely 
one of the most wretched little places to be found in any coun- 
try. Immediately opposite to it, on the other side of the St. 
Lawrence, is the thriving town of Ogdensburgh. But Ogdens- 
burgh is in the United States. Had we been able to learn at 
Ottawa any facts as to the hours of the river steamers and rail- 
ways we might have saved time and have avoided Prescott ; 
but this was out of the question. Had I asked the exact hour 
at which I might reach Calcutta by the quickest route, an ac- 
curate reply would not have been more out of the question. I 
was much struck at Prescott — and indeed all through Canada, 
though more in the upjoer than in the lower province — by the 
sturdy roughness, some would call it insolence, of those of the 
lower classes of the people with whom I was brought into con- 
tact. If the words "lower classes" give ofience to any reader, 
I beg to apologize ; — to apologize and to assert that I am one 
of the last of men to apply such a term in a sense of reproach 
to those who earn their bread by the labour of their hands. 
But it is hard to find terms which will be understood ; and 
that term, whether it give ofience or no, will be understood. 
Of course such a complaint as that I now make is very common 
as made against the States. Men in the States with horned 
hands and fustian coats are very often most unnecessarily inso- 
lent in asserting their independence. What I now mean to say 
is that precisely the same fault is to be found in Canada. I 
know well what the men mean when they offend in this man- 
ner. And when I think on the subject with deliberation, at my 



72 NORTH AMERICA. 

own desk, I can not only excuse, but almost approve tliem. But 
when one personally encounters their corduroy braggadocio ; 
when the man to whose services one is entitled answers one 
with determined insolence ; Avhen one is bidden to follow " that 
young lady," meaning the chambermaid, or desired, with a toss 
of the head, to wait for the " gentleman who is coming," mean- 
ing the boots, the heart is sickened, and the English traveller 
pines for the civility, — for the servility, if my American friends 
choose to call it so, — of a well-ordered servant. But the whole 
scene is easily construed, and turned into English. A man is 
asked by a stranger some question about his employment, and 
he replies in a tone which seems to imply anger, insolence, and 
a dishonest intention to evade the service for Avhich he is paid. 
Or if there be no question of service or payment, the man's man- 
ner will be the same, and the stranger feels that he is slapped 
in the face and insulted. The translation of it is this. The 
man questioned, who is aware that as regards coat, hat, boots, 
and outward cleanliness he is below him by whom he is ques- 
tioned, unconsciously feels himself called upon to assert his po- 
litical equality. It is his shibboleth that he is politically equal 
to the best, that he is independent, and that his labour, though 
it earn him but a dollar a day by porterage, places him as a 
citizen on an equal rank with the most wealthy fellow-man that 
may employ or accost him. But being so inferior in that coat, 
hat and boots matter, he is forced to assert his equality by some 
effort. As he improves in externals he will diminish the rough- 
ness, of his claim. As long as the man makes his claim with 
any roughness, so long does he acknowledge within himself 
some feeling of external inferiority. When that has gone, — 
when the American has polished himself up by education and 
general well being to a feeling of external equality with gentle- 
men, he shows, I think, no more of that outward braggadocio 
of independence than a Frenchman. 

But the blow at the moment of the stroke is very galling. 
I confess that I have occasionally all but broken down beneath 
it. But when it is thought of afterwards it admits of full ex- 
cuse. No effort that a man can make is better than a true ef- 
fort at independence. But this insolence is a false effort, it will 
be said. It should rather be called a false accompaniment to a 
life-long true effort. The man probably is not dishonest, does not 
desire to shirk any service which is due from him, — is not even 
inclined to insolence. Accept his first declaration of equality 
for that which it is intended to represent, and the man after- 
wards will be found obliging and communicative. If occasion 



UPPER CANADA. 73 

offer he will sit down in the room with you, and will talk with 
you on any subject that he may choose ; but having once as- 
certained that you show no resentment for this assertion of 
equality, he will do pretty nearly all that he is asked. He will 
at any rate do as much in that way as an Englishman. I say 
thus much on this subject noAv especially, because I was quite 
as much struck by the feeling in Canada as I was within the 
States. 

From Prescott we went on by the Grand Trunk Railway to 
Toronto, and stayed there for a few days. Toronto is the cap- 
ital of the province of Upper Canada, and I presume will in 
some degree remain so in spite of Ottawa and its pretensions. 
That is, the law courts will still be held there. I do not know 
that it will enjoy any other supremacy, unless it be that of 
trade and population. Some few years ago Toronto was ad- 
vancing with rapid strides, and was bidding fair to rival Que- 
bec, or even perhaps Montreal. Hamilton, also, another town 
of Upper Canada, was going a head in the true American style ; 
but then reverses came in trade, and the towns were checked 
for a while. Toronto, with a neighbouring suburb which is a 
part of it, as Southwark is of London, contains now over 50,000 
inhabitants. The streets are all parallelogramical, and there is 
not a single curvature to rest the eye. It is built down close 
upon Lake Ontario ; and as it is also on the Grand Trunk Rail- 
way it has all the aid which facility of traffic can give it. 

The two sights of Toronto are the Osgoode Hall and the Uni- 
versity. The Osgoode Hall is to Upper Canada what the Four 
Courts are to L-eland. The law courts are all held there. Ex- 
teriorly little can be said for Osgoode Hall, whereas the exte- 
rior of the Four Courts in Dublin is very fine ; but as an inte- 
rior the temple of Themis at Toronto beats hollow that which 
the goddess owns in Dublin. In Dublin the Courts themselves 
are shabby, and the space under the dome is not so fine as the 
exterior seems to promise that it should be. In Toronto the 
Courts themselves are, I think, the most commodious that I 
ever saw, and the passages, vestibules, and hall are very hand- 
some. In Upper Canada the common law judges and those in 
Chancery are divided as they are in England ; but it is, as I 
was told, the opinion of Canadian lawyers that the work may 
be thrown together. Appeal is allowed in criminal cases ; but 
as far as I could learn such power of appeal is held to be both 
troublesome and useless. In Lower Canada the old French 
laws are still administered. 

But the University is the glory of Toronto. This is a Goth- 



74 NOBTH AMERICA. 

ic building and will take rank after, but next to the buildings 
at Ottawa. It will be the second piece of noble architecture 
in Canada, and as far as I know on the American continent. 
It is, I believe, intended to be purely Norman, though I doubt 
whether the received types of Norman architecture have not 
been departed from in many of the windows. Be this as it 
may the College is a manly, noble structure, free from false 
decoration, and infinitely creditable to those who projected it. 
I was informed by the head of the College that it has been 
open only two years, and here also I fancy that the colony has 
been much indebted to the taste of the late Governor, Sir Ed- 
mund Head. 

Toronto as a city is not generally attractive to a traveller. 
The country around it is flat ; and, though it stands on a lake, 
that lake has no attributes of beauty. Large inland seas such 
as are these great Northern lakes of America never have such 
attributes. Picturesque mountains rise from narrow valleys, 
such as form the beds of lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, and 
Northern Italy. But from such broad waters as those of Lake 
Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan, the shores shelve very 
gradually, and have none of the materials of lovely scenery. 

The streets in Toronto are framed with Avood, or rather 
planked, as are those of 3Iontreal and Quebec ; but they are 
kejDt in better order. I should say that the planks are first 
used at Toronto, then sent down by the lake to Montreal, and 
when all but rotted out there, are again floated off by the St. 
Lawrence to be used in the thoroughfares of the old French 
capital. But if the streets of Toronto are better than those of 
the other towns, the roads round it are worse. I had the hon- 
our of meeting two distinguished members of the Provincial 
Parliament at dinner some few miles out of town, and, return- 
ing back a short while after they had left our host's house, was 
glad to be of use in picking them up from a ditch into which 
their carriage had been upset. To me it appeared all but mi- 
raculous that any carriage should make its way over that road 
without such misadventure. I may perhaps be allowed to 
hope that the discomfiture of those worthy legislators may lead 
to some improvement in the thoroughfare. 

I had on a previous occasion gone down the St. Lawrence, 
through the thousand isles, and over the rapids in one of those 
large summer steamboats which ply upon the lake and river. 
I cannot say that I was much struck by the scenery, and there- 
fore did not encroach upon my time by making the journey 
again. Such an opinion will be regarded as heresy by many 



CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 75 

who think much of the thousand islands. I do not believe that 
they would be expressly noted by any traveller who was not 
expressly bidden to admire them. 

From Toronto we went across to Niagara, re-entering the 
States at Lewiston in "New York. 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 

When the American war began troops were sent out to 
Canada, and when I was in the Provinces more troops were 
then expected. The matter was much talked of, as a matter 
of course, in Canada ; and it had been discussed in England be- 
fore I left. I had seen much said about it in the English pa- 
pers since, and it also had become the subject of very hot 
question among the politicians of the Northern States. The 
measure had at that time given more umbrage to the North 
than anything else done or said by England from the begin- 
ning of the war up to that time, except the declaration made 
by Lord John Russell in the House of Commons as to the neu- 
trality to be preserved by England between the two belliger- 
ents. The argument used by the Northern States was this. 
If France collects men and material of war in the neighbour- 
hood of England, England considers herself injured, calls for an 
explanation, and talks *of invasion. Therefore as England is 
now collecting men and material of war in our neighbourhood, 
we will consider ourselves injured. It does not suit us to ask 
for an explanation, because it is not our habit to interfere with 
other nations. We will not pretend to say that we think we 
are to be invaded. But as we clearly are injured, we will ex- 
press our anger at that injury, and when the opportunity shall 
come will take advantage of having that new grievance. 

As we all know, a very large increase offeree was sent when 
we were still in doubt as to the termination of the Trent affair, 
and imagined that war was imminent. But the sending of that 
large force did not anger the Americans, as the first despatch 
of troops to Canada had angered them. Things had so turned 
out that measures of military precaution were acknowledged 
by them to be necessary. I cannot, however, but think that 
Mr. Seward might have spared that offer to send British troops 
across Maine ; and so, also, have all his countrymen thought by 
whom I have heard the matter discussed. 

As to any attempt at invasion of Canada by the Americans, 



76 NORTH AMERICA. 

or idea of punishing the alleged injuries suffered by the States 
from Great Britain by the annexation of those provinces, I do 
not believe that any sane-minded citizens of the States believe 
in the possibility of such retaliation. Some years since the 
Americans thought that Canada might shine in the Union fir- 
mament as a new star, but that delusion is, I think, over. Such 
annexation if ever made, must have been made not only against 
the arms of England but must also have been made in accord- 
ance with the wishes of the people so annexed. It was then 
believed that the Canadians were not averse to such a change, 
and there may possibly have then been among them the rem- 
nant of such a wish. There is certainly no such desire now, 
not even a remnant of such a desire ; and the truth on this 
matter is, I think, generally acknowledged. The feeling in 
Canada is one of strong aversion to the IJnited States Govern- 
ment, and of predilection for self-government under the English 
Crown. A faineant Governor and the prestige of British power 
is now the political aspiration of the Canadians in general ; and 
I think that this is understood in the States. Moreover the 
States have a job of work on hand which, as they themselves 
are well aware, is taxing all their energies. Such being the 
case I do not tliink that England needs to fear any invasion of 
Canada, authorized by the States Government. 

This feeling of a grievance on the part of the States was a 
manifest absurdity. The new reinforcement of the garrisons 
in Canada did not, when I was in Canada, amount as I believe 
to more than 2,000 men. But had it amounted to 20,000 the 
States would have had no just ground for complaint. Of all 
nationalities that in modern days have risen to power, they 
above all others have shown that they would do what they 
liked with their own, indifferent to foreign councils, and deaf 
to foreign remonstrance. "Do you go your way, and let us 
go ours. We will trouble you with no question, nor do you 
trouble us." Such has been their national policy, and it has ob- 
tained for them great respect. They have resisted the tempta- 
tion of putting their fingers into the caldron of foreign policy ; 
and foreign politicians, acknowledging their reserve in this re- 
spect, have not been offended at the bristles with which their 
Noli me tangere has been proclaimed. Their intelligence has 
been appreciated, and their conduct has been respected. But 
if this has been their line of policy, they must be entirely out 
of court in raising any question as to the position of British 
troops on British soil. 

" It shows us that you doubt us," an American says, with an 



CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 77 

air of injured honour — or did say, before that Trent aifair. 
"And it is done to express sympathy with the South. The 
Southerners understand it, and we understand it also. We 
know where your hearts are ; nay, your Very souls. They are 
among the slave-begotten cotton bales of the rebel South." 
Then comes the whole of the long argument, in which it seems 
so easy to an Englishman to prove that England in the whole 
of this sad matter has been true and loyal to her friend. She 
could not interfere when the husband and wife would quarrel. 
She could only grieve, and wish that things might come right 
and smooth for both parties. But the argument though so 
easy is never effectual. 

It seems to me foolish in an American to quarrel with En- 
gland for sending soldiers to Canada; but I cannot say that I 
thought it was well done to send them at the begmning of the 
war. The English Government did not, I presume, take this 
step with reference to any possible invasion of Canada by the 
Government of the States. We are fortifying Portsmouth, and 
Portland, and Plymouth, because we would fain be safe against 
the French army acting under a French Emperor. But we 
sent 2,000 troops to Canada, if I understand the matter rightly, 
to guard our provinces against the filibustering energies of a 
mass of unemployed American soldiers, when those soldiers 
should come to be disbanded. When this war shall be over — 
a war during which not much, if any, under a million of Amer- 
ican citizens will have been under arms — it will not be easy for 
all who survive to return to their old homes and old occupa- 
tions. Nor does a dkbanded soldier always make a good hus- 
bandman, notwithstanding the great examples of Cincinnatus 
and Bird-o'-freedom Sawin. It may be that a considerable 
amount of filibustering energy will be afloat, and that tiie then 
Government of those who neighbour us in Canada will have 
other matters in hand more important to them than the con- 
trolling of these unruly spirits. That, as I take it, was the evil 
against which we of Great Britain and of Canada desired to 
guard ourselves. 

But I doubt whether 2,000 or 10,000 British soldiers would 
be any effective guard against such inroads, and I doubt more 
strongly whether any such external guarding will be necessary. 
If the Canadians were prepared to fraternize with filibusters 
from the States, neither three nor ten thousand soldiers would 
avail against such a feeling over a frontier stretching from the 
State of Maine to the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. If 
such a feeling did exist, if the Canadians wished the change, in 



V8 NORTH AMERICA. 

God's name let them go. Is it for their sakes and not for our 
own that we would have them bound to us? But the Canadi- 
ans are averse to such a change with a degree of feeling that 
amounts to national intensity. Their sympathies are with the 
Southern States, not because they care for cotton, not because 
they are anti-abolitionists, not because they admire the hearty 
pluck of those who are endeavouring to work out for them- 
selves a new revolution. They sympathize with the South from 
strong dislike to the aggression, the braggadocio, and the inso- 
lence they have felt upon their own borders. They dislike Mr. 
Seward's weak and vulgar joke with the Duke of Newcastle. 
They dislike Mr. Everett's flattering hints to his countrymen as 
to the one nation that is to occupy the whole continent. They 
dislike the Monroe doctrine. They wonder at the meekness 
with which England has endured the vauntings of the North- 
ern States, and are endued with no such meekness of their own. 
They would, I believe, be well prepared to meet and give an ac- 
count of any filibusters who might visit them ; and I am not 
sure that it is wisely done on our part to show any intention 
of taking the work out of their hands. 

But I am led to this opinion in no degree by a feeling that 
Great Britain ought to grudge the cost of the soldiers. If Can- 
ada will be safer with them, in heaven's name let her have them. 
It has been argued in many places, not only with regard to 
Canada, but as to all our self-governed colonies, that military 
service should not be given at British expense and with British 
men to any colony which has its own representative govern- 
ment, and which levies its own taxes. " While Great Britain 
absolutely held the reins of government, and did as it pleased 
with the affairs of its dependencies," such politicians say, " it 
was ju^t and right that she should pay the bill. As long as 
her government of a colony was paternal, so long was it right 
that the mother country should put herself in the place of a fa- 
ther, and enjoy a father's undoubted prerogative of putting his 
hand into his breeches pocket to provide for all the wants of 
his child. But when the adult son set up for himself in busi- 
ness, having received education from the parent, and having 
had his apprentice fees duly paid, then that son should settle 
his own bills, and look no longer to the paternal pocket." Such 
is the law of the world all over, from little birds whose young 
fly away when fledged, upwards to men and nations. Let the 
father work for the child while he is a child, but when the child 
has become a man let him lean no longer on his father's staff. 

The argument is, I think, very good ; but it proves, not that 



CON]SrEXION OF THE CAN AD AS WITH GKEAT BRITAIN. 79 

we are relieved from the necessity of assisting our colonies 
with payments made out of British taxes, but that we are still 
bound to give such assistance ; and that we shall continue to 
be so bound as long as Ave allow these colonies to adhere to us, 
or as they allow us to adhere to them. In fact the young bird 
is not yet fully fledged. That illustration of the father and the 
child is a just one, but in order to make it just it should be 
followed throughout. When the son is in fact established on 
his own bottom, then the father expects that he will live Avith- 
out assistance. But when the son does so live he is freed from 
all paternal control. The father, while he expects to be obey- 
ed, continues to fill the paternal office of paymaster, — of pay- 
master, at any rate, to some extent. And so, I think, it must 
be with om- colonies. The Canadas at present are not inde- 
pendent, and have not political power of their own apart from 
the political power of Great Britain. England has declared 
herself neutral as regards the Northern and Southern States, 
and by that neutrality the Canadas are bound ; and yet the 
Canadas Avere not consulted in the matter. Should England 
go to war Avith France, Canada must close her ports against 
French vessels. If England chooses to send her troops to Ca- 
nadian barracks, Canada cannot refuse to accept them. If En- 
gland should send to Canada an unpopular Governor, Canada 
has no poAver to reject his services. As long as Canada is a 
colony, so called, she cannot be independent, and should not be 
expected to Avalk alone. It is exactly the same Avith the colo- 
nies of Australia, Avith New Zealand, with the Cape of Good 
Hope, and with Jamaica. While England enjoys the prestige 
of her colonies, Avhile she boasts that such large and noAV pop- 
ulous territories are her dependencies, she must and should be 
content to pay some portion of the bill. Surely it is absurd on 
our part to quarrel with Caffre warfare, Avith Ncav Zealand 
fighting, and the rest of it. Such complaints remind one of an 
ancient paterfamilias, who insists on having his children and 
his grandchildren under the old paternal roof, and then grum- 
bles because the butcher's bill is high. Those who will keep 
large households and bountiful tables should not be afraid of 
facing the butcher's bill, or unhappy at the tonnage of the coal. 
It is a grand thing, that power of keeping a large table ; but it 
ceases to be grand Avhen the items heaped upon it cause in- 
ward groans and outward moodiness. 

Why should the colonies remain true to us as children are 
true to their parents, if we grudge them the assistance which 
is due to a child? They raise their own taxes, it is said, and 



80 NORTH AMEEICA. 

administer them. True ; and it is well that the growing son 
should do something for himself. While the father does all for 
him the son's labour belongs to the father. Then comes a mid- 
dle state in which the son does much for himself, but not all. 
In that middle state now stand our prosperous colonies. Then 
comes the time when the son shall stand alone by his own 
strength ; and to that period of manly self-respected strength 
let us all hope that those colonies are advancing. It is very 
hard for a mother country to know when such a time has come ; 
and hard also for the child-colony to recognize justly the pe- 
riod of its own maturity. Whether or no such severance may 
ever take place without a quarrel, without weakness on one 
side and pride on the other, is a problem in the world's history 
yet to be solved. The most successful child that ever yet has 
gone off from a successful parent and taken its own path int' 
the world, is without doubt the nation of the United States. 
Their present troubles are the result and the proofs of their 
success. The people that were too great to be dependent on 
any nation have now spread till they are themselves too great 
for a single nationality. No one now thinks that that daugh- 
ter should have remained longer subject to her mother. But 
the severance was not made in amity, and the shrill notes of 
the old family quarrel are still sometimes heard across the 
waters. 

From all this the question arises whether that problem may 
ever be solved Avith reference to the Canadas. That it will 
never be their destiny to join themselves to the States of the 
Union, I feel fully convinced. In the first place, it is becoming 
evident from the present circumstances of the Union, — if it 
had never been made evident by history before, — that different 
people with different habits living at long distances from each 
other cannot well be brought together on equal terms under 
one Government. That noble amljition of the Americans that 
all the continent north of the Isthmus should be united under 
one flag, has already been thrown from its saddle. The North 
and South are virtually separated, and the day will come in 
which the West also will secede. As population increases and 
trades arise peculiar to those different climates, the interests of 
the people will differ, and a new secession will take place ben- 
eficial alike to both parties. If this be so, if even there be any 
tendency this way, it affords the strongest argument against 
the probability of any future annexation of the Canadas. And 
then, in the second place, the feeling of Canada is not Amer- 
ican, but British. If ever she be separated from Great Britain, 



CONNEXION OF THE CAN ADAS WITH GKEAT BRITAIN. 81 

she will be separated as the States were separated. She will 
desire to stand alone, and to enter herself as one among the 
nations of the earth. 

She will desire to stand alone ; — alone, that is without de- 
pendence either on England or on the States. But she is so 
circumstanced geographically that she can never stand alone 
without amalgamation with our other North American prov- 
inces. She has an outlet to the sea at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
but it is only a summer outlet. Her winter outlet is by rail- 
way through the States, and no other winter outlet is possible 
for her except through the sister provinces. Before Canada 
can be nationally great, the line of railway which now runs for 
some hundred miles below Quebec to Riviere du Loup, must 
be continued on through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to 
the port of Halifax. 

When I was in Canada I heard the question discussed of a 
Federal Government between the provinces of the two Cana- 
das. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. To these w^ere added, 
or not added, according to the opinion of those w^ho spoke, 
the smaller outlying colonies of New^foundland and Prince Ed- 
ward's Island. If a scheme for such a Government Avere pro- 
jected in Downing Street, all would no doubt be included, 
and a clean sweep would be made without difficulty. But the 
project as made in the colonies appears in different guises as it 
comes either from Canada or from one of the other provinces. 
The Canadian idea would be that the two Canadas should form 
two States of such a confederation, and the other provinces a 
third State. But this slight participation in power w^ould hard- 
ly suit the views of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In 
speaking of such a Federal Government as this, I shall of course 
be understood as meaning a confederMon acting in connexion 
with a British Governor, and dependent upon Great Britain as 
far as the different colonies are now dependent. 

I cannot but think that such a confederation might be formed 
with great advantage to all the colonies and to Great Britain. 
At present the Canadas are in effect almost more distant from 
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick than they are from England. 
The intercourse between them is very slight — so slight that it 
may almost be said that there is no intercourse. A few men 
of science or of political importance may from time to time 
make their way from one colony into the other, but even this 
is not common. Beyond that they seldom see each other. 
Though New Brunswick borders, both with Lower Canada 
and with Nova Scotia, thus making one whole of the three col- 

D 2 



82 NOKTH AMERICA. 

onies, there is neither raih'oad nor stage conveyance running 
from one to the other. And yet their interests should be sim- 
ilar. From geographical position their modes of life must be 
alike, and a close conjunction between them is essentially nec- 
essary to give British North America any political importance 
in the world. There can be no such conjunction, no amalga- 
mation of interests, until a railway shall have been made join- 
ing the Canada Grand Trunk Line with the two outlying colo- 
nies. Upper Canada can feed all England with wheat, and 
could do so without any aid of railway through the States, if a 
railway were made from Quebec to Halifax. But then comes 
the question of the cost. The Canada Grand Trunk is at the 
present moment at the lowest ebb of commercial misfortune, 
and with such a fact patent to the world what company will 
come forward with funds for making four or five hundred miles 
of railway, through a district of which one half is not yet pre- 
pared for population ? It would be, I imagine, out of the ques- 
tion that such a speculation should for many years give any 
fair commercial interest on the money to be expended. But 
nevertheless to the colonies, — that is, to the enormous regions 
of British North America, — such a railroad would be invalua- 
ble. Under such circumstances it is for the Home Government 
and the colonies between them to see how such a measure may 
be carried out. As a national expenditure to be defrayed in 
the course of years by the territories interested, the sum of 
money required would be very small. 

But how would this affect England ? And how would En- 
gland be affected by a union of the British North American 
colonies under one Federal Government? Before this ques- 
tion can be answered, he who prepares to answer it must con- 
sider what interest England has in her colonies, and for what 
purpose she holds them. Does she hold them for profit, or for 
glory, or for power ; or does she hold them in order that she 
may carry out the duty which has devolved upon her of ex- 
tending civilization, freedom, and well-being through the new 
uprising nations of the world ? Does she hold them, in fact, 
for her own benefit, or does she hold them for theirs ? I know 
nothing of the ethics of the Colonial Office, and not much per- 
haps of those of the House of Commons ; but looking at what 
Great Britain has hitherto done in the way of colonization, I 
cannot but think that the national ambition looks to the wel- 
fare of the colonists, and not to home aggrandisement. That 
the two may run together is most probable. Indeed there can 
be no glory to a people so great or so readily recognized by 



CONNEXION OF THE CAN ADAS AVITH GREAT BRITAIN. 83 

mankind at large as that of spreading civilization from East to 
West, and from North to South. But the one object should 
be the prosperity of the colonists ; and not profit, nor glory, 
nor even power to the parent country. 

There is no virtue of which more has been said and sung 
than patriotism, and none which when pure and true has led to 
finer results. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. To live 
for one's country also is a very beautiful and proper thing. 
But if we examine closely much patriotism, that is so called, 
we shall find it going hand in hand with a good deal that is 
selfish, and with not a little that is devilish. It was some fine 
fury of patriotic feeling which enabled the national poet to put 
into the mouth of every Englishman that horrible prayer with 
regard to our enemies, which we sing when we wish to do hon- 
our to our sovereign. It did not seem to him that it might be 
well to pray that their hearts should be softened, and our own 
hearts softened also. National success was all that a patriotic 
poet could desire, and therefore in our national hymn have we 
gone on imploring the Lord to arise and scatter our enemies ; 
to confound their politics, whether they be good or ill; and to 
expose their knavish tricks, — such knavish tricks being taken 
for granted. And then with a steady confidence we used to 
declare how certain we were that we should achieve all that 
was desirable, not exactly by trusting to our prayer to heav- 
en, but by relying almost exclusively on George the Third or 
George the Fourth. Now I have always thought that that 
was rather a poor patriotism. Luckily for us our national con- 
duct has not squared itself with our national anthem. Any 
patriotism must be poor which desires glory or even profit for 
a few at the expense of many, even though the few be brothers 
and the many aliens. As a rule patriotism is a virtue only be- 
cause man's aptitude for good is so finite, that he cannot see 
and comprehend a wider humanity. He can hardly bring him- 
self to understand that salvation should be extended to Jew 
and Gentile alike. The Avord philanthropy has become odious, 
and I would fain not use it; but the thing itself is as much 
higher than patriotism, as heaven is above the earth. 

A wish that British North America should ever be severed 
from England, or that the Australian colonies should ever be 
so severed, will by many Englishmen be deemed unpatriotic. 
But I think that such severance is to be wished if it be the 
case that the colonies standing alone w^ould become more pros- 
perous than they are under British rule. We have before us 
an example in the United States of the prosperity which has 



84 NOETH AMERICA. 

attended such a rupture of old ties. I will not now contest 
the point with those who say that the present moment of an 
American civil war is ill chosen for vaunting that prosperity. 
There stand the cities which the people have built, and their 
power is attested by the world-wide importance of their pres- 
ent contest. And if the States have so risen since they left 
their parent's apron - string, why should not British North 
America rise as high ? That the time has as yet come for such 
rising I do not think ; but that it will soon come I do most 
heartily hope. The making of the railway of which I have 
spoken, and the amalgamation of the provinces would greatly 
tend to such an event. If, therefore, England desires to keep 
these colonies in a state of dependency ; if it be more essential 
to her to maintain her own power with regard to them than 
to increase their influence ; if her main object be to keep the 
colonies and not to improve the colonies, then I should say that 
an amalgamation of the Canadas with ISTova Scotia and New 
Brunswick should not be regarded with favor by statesmen in 
Downing Street. But if, as I would fain hope, and do partly 
believe, such ideas of national power as these are now out of 
vogue with British statesmen, then I think that such an amal- 
gamation should receive all the support which Downing Street 
can give it. 

The United States severed tliemselves from Great Britain 
with a great struggle and after heartburnings and bloodslied. 
"Whether Great Britain will ever allow any colony of hers to 
depart from out of her nest, to secede and start for herself, 
without any struggle or heartburnings, with all furtherance for 
such purpose which an old and powerful country can give to a 
new nationality then first taking its own place in the world's 
arena, is a problem yet to be solved. There is, I think, no more 
beautiful sight than that of a mother, still in all the glory of 
womanhood, preparing the wedding trousseau for her daugh- 
ter. The child hitherto has been obedient and submissive. She 
has been one of a household in which she has held no com- 
mand. She has sat at table as a child, fitting herself in all 
things to the behests of others. But the day of her power and 
her glory, and also of her cares and solicitude is at hand. She 
is to go forth, and do as she best may in the world under that, 
teaching which her old home has given her. The liour of sep- 
aration has come ; and the mother, smiling through her tears, 
sends her forth decked with a bounteous hand and furnished 
with full stores, so that all may be well with her as she enters 
on her new duties. So is it that England should send forth 



J 



CONNEXION OF THE CAN AD AS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 85 

her daughters. They should not escape from her arms with 
shrill screams and bleeding wounds, with ill-omened words 
which live so long, though the speakers of them lie cold in their 
graves. 

But this sending forth of a child-nation to take its own po- 
litical status in the world has never yet been done by Great 
Britain. I cannot remember that such has ever been done by 
any great power with reference to its dependency ; — by any 
l^ower that was powerful enough to keep such dependency 
within its grasp. But a man thinking on these matters cannot 
but hope that a time will come when such amicable severance 
may be effected. Great Britain cannot think that through all 
coming ages she is to be the mistress of the vast continent 
of Australia, lying on the other side of the globe's surface ; that 
she is to be the mistress of all South Africa, as civilization shall 
extend northward; that the enormous territories of British 
North America are to be subject for ever to a veto from Down- 
ing Street. If the history of past empires does not teach her 
that this may not be so, at least the history of the United 
States might so teach her. "But we have learned a lesson 
from those United States," the patriot will argue who dares 
to hope that the glory and extent of the British Empire may 
remain unimpaired in smcida sceculorum. " Since that day we 
have given political rights to our colonies, and have satisfied the 
political longings of their inhabitants. T7e do not tax their tea 
and stamps, but leave it to them to tax themselves as they may 
please." True. But in political aspirations the giving of an inch 
has ever created the desire for an ell. If the Australian colonies, 
even now, — with their scanty population and still young civiliz- 
ation, chafe against imperial interference, will they submit to it 
when they feel within their veins all the full blood of political 
manhood ? What is the cry even of the Canadians — of the Cana- 
dians who are thoroughly loyal to England ? Send us a faineant 
Governor, a King Log, who will not presume to interfere with 
us ; a Governor who will spend his money and live like a gen- 
tleman and care little or nothing for politics. That is the 
Canadian beau ideal of a Governor. They are to govern them- 
selves ; and he who comes to them from England is to sit among 
them as the silent representative of England's protection. If 
that be true — and I do not think that any who know the 
Canadas will deny it — must it not be presumed that they will 
soon also desire a faineant minister in Downing Street? Of 
course they will so desire. Men do not become milder in their 
aspirations for political power, the more that political power is 



86 NORTH AMERICA. 

extended to them. ISTor would it be well that they should be 
so humble in their desires. Nations devoid of political power 
have never risen high in the world's esteem. Even when they 
have been commercially successful, commerce has not brought 
to them the greatness which it has always given when joined 
with a strong political existence. The Greeks are commer- 
cially rich and active ; but " Greece" and " Greek" are bye- 
words now for all that is mean. Cuba is a colony, and putting 
aside the cities of the States, the Havana is the richest town 
on the other side of the Atlantic and commercially the great- 
est ; but the political villainy of Cuba, her daily importation of 
slaves, her breaches of treaty, and the bribery of her all but 
royal Governor are known to all men. But Canada is not dis- 
honest ; Canada is no bye-word for anything evil ; Canada eats 
her own bread in the sweat of her brow, and fears a bad word 
from no man. True. But why does New York with its sub- 
urbs boast a million of inhabitants, while Montreal has 85,000 ? 
Why has that babe in years, Chicago, 120,000, while Toronto 
has not half the number? I do not say that Montreal and To- 
ronto should have gone ahead abreast with New York and 
Chicago. In such races one must be first, and one last. But 
I do say that the Canadian toAvns will have no equal chance, 
till they are actuated by that feeling of political independence 
which has created the growth of the towns in the United 
States. 

I do not think that the time has yet come in which Great 
Britain should desire the Canadians to start for themselves. 
There is the making of that railroad to be effected, and some- 
thing done towards the union of those provinces. Canada 
could no more stand alone without New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia, than could those latter colonies without Canada. But 
I think it would be well to be prepared for such a coming day ; 
and that it would at any rate be well to bring home to ourselves 
and realize the idea of such secession on the part of our colonies, 
when the time shall have come at which such secession may be 
carried out with profit and security to them. Great Britain, 
should she ever send forth her child alone into the world, must 
of course guarantee her security. Such guarantees are given 
by treaties ; and in the wording of them it is presumed that 
such treaties will last for ever. It will be argued that in start- 
ing British North America as a political power on its own bot- 
tom, we should bind ourself to all the expense of its defence, 
while we should give up all right to any interference in its con- 
cerns ; and that from a state of things so unprofitable as this 



CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GEEAT BRITAIN. 87 

there would be no prospect of deliverance. But such treaties, 
let them be worded how they will, do not last for ever. For 
a time, no doubt. Great Britain would be so hampered — if in- 
deed she would feel herself hampered by extending her name 
and prestige to a country bound to her by ties such as those 
which would then exist between her and this new nation. Such 
treaties are not everlasting, nor can they be made to last even 
for ages. Those who word them seem to think that powers 
and dynasties will never pass away. But they do pass away, 
and the balance of power will not keep itself fixed for ever on 
the same pivot. The time may come — that it may not come 
soon we will all desire — but the time may come when the name 
and prestige of what we call British North America will be as 
serviceable to Great Britain as those of Great Britain are now 
serviceable to her colonies. 

But what shall be the new form of government for the new 
kingdom? That is a speculation very interesting to a politi- 
cian ; though one which to follow out at great length in these 
early days would be rather premature. That it should be a 
kingdom — that the political arrangement should be one of 
which a crowned hereditary king should form a part, nineteen 
out of every twenty Englishmen would desire ; and, as I fancy, 
so would also nineteen out of every tv/enty Canadians. A king 
for the United States when they first established themselves 
was impossible. A total rupture from the Old World and all 
its habits was necessary for them. The name of a king, or 
monarch, or sovereign had become horrible to their ears. Even 
to this day they have not learned the difierence between arbi- 
trary power retained in the hand of one man, such as that now 
held by the Emperor over the French, and such hereditary 
headship in the State as that which belongs to the Crown in 
Great Britain. And this was necessary, seeing that their divi- 
sion from us was effected by strife, and carried out with war 
and bitter animosities. In those days also there was a rem- 
nant, though but a small remnant, of the power of tyranny left 
within the scope of the British Crown. That small remnant 
has been removed ; and to me it seems that no form of existing 
government — no form of government that ever did exist, gives 
or has given so large a measure of individual freedom to all 
who live under it as a constitutional monarchy in which the 
Crown is divested of direct political power. 

I will venture then to suggest a king for this new nation ; 
and seeing that Ave are rich in princes there need be no diflSculty 
in the selection. Would it not be beautiful to see a new nation 



NORTH AMERICA. 



established under such auspices, and to establish a people to 
whom their independence had been given, — to whom it had 
been freely surrendered as soon as they were capable of holding 
the position assigned to them ? 



CHAPTER VII. 

NIAGARA. 

Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tourists travel 
to see, — at least of all those which I have seen, — I am inclined 
to give the palm to the Falls of Niagara. In the catalogue of 
such sights I intend to include all buildings, pictures, statues, 
and wonders of art made by men's hands, and also all beauties 
of nature prepared by the Creator for the delight of his creat- 
ures. This is a long word ; but as far as my taste and judg- 
ment go, it is justiiied. I know no other one thing so beauti- 
ful, so glorious, and so powerful. I would not by this be un- 
derstood as saying that a traveller wishing to do the best with 
his time should lirst of all places seek Niagara. In visiting 
Florence he may learn almost all that modern art can teach. 
At liome he will be brought to understand the cold hearts, 
correct eyes, and cruel ambition of the old Latin race. In 
Switzerland he will surround himself with a flood of grandeur 
and loveliness, and fill himself, if he be capable of such filling, 
with a flood of romance. The Tropics will unfold to him all 
that vegetation in its greatest richness can produce. In Paris 
lie will find the supreme of polish, the ne plus ultra of varnish 
according to the world's capability of varnishing. And in Lon- 
don he will find the supreme of power, the ne plus ultra of work 
according to the world's capability of working. Any one of 
such journeys may be more valuable to a man, — nay, any one 
such journey must be more valuable to a man, than a visit to 
Niagara. At Niagara there is that fall of waters alone. But 
that fall is more graceful than Giotto's tower, more noble than 
the Apollo. The peaks of the Alps are not so astounding in 
their solitude. The valleys of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica 
are less green. The finished glaze of life in Paris'is less invaria- 
ble ; and the full tide of trade round the Bank of England is not 
so inexorably powerful. 

I came across an artist at Niagara who was attempting to 
draw the spray of the waters. "You have a difticult subject," 
said I. "AH subjects are difticult," he replied, "to a man who 
desires to do well." "But yours, I fear, is impossible," I said. 



NIAGARA. 89 

" You have no right to say so till I have finished my picture," 
he repUed. I acknowledged the justice of his rebuke, regretted 
that I could not remain till the completion of his work should 
enable me to revoke my w^ords, and passed on. Then I began to 
reflect whether I did not intend to try a task as difficult in de- 
scribing the falls, and whether I felt any of that proud self-con- 
^dence which kept him happy at any rate while his task was 
in hand. I will not say that it is as difficult to describe aright 
that rush of waters, as it is to paint it well. But I doubt 
whether it is not quite as difficult to write a description that 
shall interest the reader, as it is to paint a picture of them that 
shall be pleasant to the beholder. My friend the artist was at 
any rate not afraid to make the attemj)t, and I also will try my 
hand. 

That the waters of Lake Erie have come down in their courses 
from the broad basins of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and 
Lake LIuron ; that these waters fall into Lake Ontario by the 
short and rapid river of Niagara, and that the Falls of Niagara 
are made by a sudden break in the level of this rapid river, is 
probably known to all who Avill read this book. All the waters 
of these huge northern inland seas run over that breach in the 
rocky bottom of the stream ; and thence it comes that the flow is 
unceasing in its grandeur, and that no eye can perceive a difter- 
ence in the weight, or sound, or violence of the fall, whether it 
be visited in the drought of autumn, amidst the storms of win- 
ter, or after the melting of the upper worlds of ice in the days 
of the early summer. How many cataracts does the habitual 
tourist visit at which the waters fail him ? But at Niagara the 
waters never fail. There it thunders over its ledge in a volume 
that never ceases and is never diminished ; — as it has done from 
times previous to the life of man, and as it wifl do till tens of 
thousands of years shall see the rocky bed of the river Avorn 
away, back to the upper lake. 

This stream divides Canada from the States, the western or 
farthermost bank belonging to the British Crown, and the 
eastern or nearer bank being in the State of New York. In 
visiting Niagara it always becomes a question on which side 
the visitor shall take up his quarters. On the Canada side 
there is no town, but there is a large hotel, beautifully placed 
immediately opposite to the falls, and this is generally thought 
to be the best locality for tourists. In the State of New York 
is the town called Niagara Falls, and here there are two large 
hotels, which, as to their immediate site, are not so well placed 
as that in Canada. I first visited Niagara some three years 



90 NORTH AMERICA. 

since. I stayed then at the Clifton House on the Canada side, 
and have since sworn by that position. But the Clifton House 
was closed for the season when I was last there, and on that 
account we went to the Cataract House in the town on the 
other side. I now think that I should set up my staff on the 
American side if I went again. My advice on the subject to 
any party starting for Niagara would depend upon their hab- 
its, or on their nationality. I would send Americans to the 
Canadian side, because they dislike walking ; but English peo- 
ple I would locate on the American side, seeing that they are 
generally accustomed to the frequent use of their own legs. 
The two sides are not very easily approached, one from the 
other. Immediately below the falls there is a ferry, which 
may be traversed at the expense of a shihing ; but the labour 
of getting up and down from the ferry is considerable, and the 
passage becomes wearisome. There is also a bridge, but it is 
two miles down the river, making a walk or drive of four miles 
necessary, and the toll for passing is four shillings or a dollar 
in a carriage, and one shilling on foot. As the greater variety 
of prospect can be had on the American side, as the island be- 
tween the two falls is approachable from the American side 
and not from the Canadian, and as it is in this island that 
visitors will best love to linger and learn to measure in their 
minds the vast triumph of waters before them, I recommend 
such of my readers as can trust a little — it need be but a little 
— to their own legs, to select their hotel at Niagara Falls town. 

It has been said that it matters much from what point the 
falls are first seen, but to this I demur. It matters, I think, 
very little, or not at all. Let the visitor first see it all, and 
learn the whereabouts of every point, so as to understand his 
own position and that of the waters ; and then having done 
that in the way of business let him proceed to enjoyment. I 
doubt whether it be not the best to do this with all sight see- 
ing. I am quite sure that it is the way in which acquaintance 
may be best and most pleasantly made with a new picture. 

The falls are, as I have said, made by a sudden breach in 
the level of the river. All cataracts are, I presume, made by 
such breaches; but generally the waters do not fall precipi- 
tously as they do at Niagara, and never elsewhere, as far as 
the world yet knows, has a breach so sudden been made in a 
river carrying in its channel such or any approach to such a 
body of water. Up above the falls, for more than a mile, the 
waters leap and burst over rapids, as though conscious of the 
destiny that awaits them. Here the river is very broad, and 



NIAGARA. 91 

comparatively shallow, but from shore to shore it frets itself 
into little torrents, and begins to assume the majesty of its 
jDower. Looking at it even here, in the expanse which forms 
itself over the greater fall, one feels sure that no strongest 
swimmer could have a chance of saving himself, if fite had 
cast him in even among those petty whirlpools. The waters, 
though so broken in their descent, are deliciously green. This 
colour as seen early in the morning, or just as the sun has set, 
is so bright as to give to the place of its chiefest charms. 

This will be best seen from the further end of the island, — 
Goat Island, as it is called, which, as the reader will under- 
stand, divides the river immediately above the falls. Indeed 
the island is a part of that precipitously broken ledge over 
v/hich the river tumbles ; and no doubt in process of time will 
be worn away and covered with water. The time, however, 
will be very long. In the meanwhile it is perhaps a mile 
round, and is covered thickly with timber. At the upper end 
of the island the waters are divided, and coming down in two 
courses, each over its own rapids, form two separate falls. 
The bridge by which the island is entered is a hundred yards 
or more above the smaller fall. The waters here have been 
turned by the island, and make their leap into the body of the 
river below at a right angle Avith it, — about two hundred yards 
below the greater fall. Taken alone this smaller cataract would, 
I imagine, be the heaviest fall of water known, but taken in 
conjunction with the other it is terribly shorn of its majesty. 
The waters here are not green as they are at the larger cata- 
ract, and though the ledge has been hollowed and bowed by 
them so as to form a curve, that curve does not deepen itself 
into a vast abyss as it does at the horse-shoe up above. This 
smaller fall is again divided, and the visitor passing down a 
flight of steps and over a frail wooden bridge finds himself on 
a smaller island in the midst of it. 

But we will go at once on to the glory, and the thunder, and 
the majesty, and the wrath of that upper hell of waters. We 
are still, let the reader remember, on Goat Island, still in the 
States, and on what is called the American side of the main 
body of the river. Advancing beyond the path leading down 
to the lesser fall, we come to that point of the island at which 
the waters of the main river begin to descend. From hence 
across to the Canadian side the cataract continues itself in one 
unabated line. But the line is very far from being direct or 
straight. After stretching for some little way from the shore, 
to a point in the river which is reached by a wooden bridge at 



92 NOETH AMERICA. 

the end of which stands n, tower upon the rock, — after stretch- 
ing to this, the line of the ledge bends inwards against the flood, 
— in, and in, and in, till one is led to think that the depth of 
that horse-shoe is immeasureable. It has been cut with no 
stinting hand. A monstrous cantle has been worn back out of 
the centre of the rock, so that the fury of the waters converges, 
and the spectator as he gazes into the hollow with wishful eyes 
fancies that he can hardly trace out the centre of the abyss. 

Go down to the end of that wooden bridge, seat yourself on 
the rail, and there sit till all the outer world is lost to you. 
There is no grander spot about Niagara than this. The waters 
are absolutely around you. If you have that power of eye-con- 
trol which is so necessary to the full enjoyment of scenery you 
will see nothing but the water. You will certainly hear nothing 
else ; and the sound, I beg you to remember, is not an ear-crack- 
ing, agonizing crash and clang of noises ; but is melodious, and 
soft withal, though loud as thunder. It fills your ears, and as 
it were envelopes them, but at the same time you can speak to 
your neighbour without an efibrt. But at this place, and in these 
moments, the less of speaking I should say the better. There 
is no grander spot than this. Here, seated on the rail of the 
bridge, you will not see the whole depth of the fall. In look- 
ing at*the grandest w^orks of nature, and of art too, I fancy, it 
is never well to see all. There should be something left to the 
imagination, and much should be half concealed in mystery. 
The greatest charm of a mountain range is the -wild feeling that 
there must be strange unknown desolate worlds in those far-off 
valleys beyond. And so here, at Niagara, that converging rush 
of waters may fall down, down at once into a hell of rivers for 
wdiat the eye can see. It is glorious to watch them in their 
first curve over the rocks. They come green as a bank of em- 
eralds ; but with a fitful flying colour, as though conscious that 
in one moment more they would be dashed into spray and rise 
into air, pale as driven snow. The vapour rises high into the 
air, and is gathered there, visible always as a permanent white 
cloud over the cataract ; but the bulk of the spray which fills 
the lower hollow of that horse-shoe is like a tumult of snow. 
This you Avill not fully see from your seat on the rail. The 
head of it rises ever and anon out of that caldron below, but 
the caldron itself will be invisible. It is ever so far down, — far 
as your own imagination can sink it. But your eyes will rest 
full upon the curve of the waters. The shape you will be look- 
ing at is that of a horse-shoe, but of a horse-shoe miraculously 
deep from toe to heel ; — and this depth becomes greater as you 



NIAGAKA. 93 

sit there. That which at first Avas only great and beantifiil, be- 
comes gigantic and subHme till the mind is at loss to find an 
epithet for its own use. To realize Niagara you must sit there 
till you see nothing else than that which you have come to 
see. You will hear nothing else, and think of nothing else. 
At length you w411 be at one with the tumbling river before 
you. You will find yourself among the waters as though you 
belonged to them. The cool liquid green will run through your 
veins, and the voice of the cataract will be the expression of 
your own heart. You will fall as the bright waters fall, rush- 
ing down into your new w:orld w^ith no hesitation and with no 
dismay ; and you will rise again as the spray rises, bright, beau- 
tiful, and pure. Then you will flow away in your course to the 
uncomj^assed, distant, and eternal ocean. 

When this state has been reached and has passed away you 
may get off your rail and mount the tower. I do not quite ap- 
prove of that tower, seeing that it has about it a gingerbread air, 
and reminds one of those well-arranged scenes of romance in 
which one is told that on the left you turn to the lady's bower, 
price sixpence; and on the right ascend to the knight's bed, 
price sixpence more, with a view of the hermit's tomb thrown 
in. But nevertheless the tower is worth mounting, and no 
money is charged for the use of it. It is not very high, and 
there is a balcony at the top on which some half dozen persons 
may stand at ease. Here the mystery is lost, but the whole 
fall is seen. It is not even at this spot brought so fully before 
your eye, — made to show itself in so complete and entire a 
shape, as it will do when you come to stand near to it on the 
oj^posite or Canadian shore. But I think that it shows itself 
more beautifully. And the form of the cataract is such, that, 
here in Goat Island, on the American side, no sj)ray will reach 
you, although you are absolutely over the waters. But on the 
Canadian side, the road as it approaches the fall is wet and 
rotten with spray, and you, as you stand close upon the edge, 
will be wet also. The rainbows as they are seen through the 
rising cloud — for the sun's rays as seen through these waters 
show themselves in a bow as they do when seen through rain 
— are pretty enough, and are greatly loved. For myself I do 
not care for this prettiness at Niagara. It is there, but I for- 
get it, — and do not mind how soon it is forgotten. 

But we are still on the tower ; and here I must declare that 
though I forgive the tower, I cannot forgive the horrid obelisk 
which has latterly been built opposite to it, on the Canadian 
side, up above the fall ; built apparently, — for I did not go to 



94 NORTH AMERICA. 

it, — with some camera obscnra intention for whicli the pro- 
jector deserves to be put in Coventry by all good Christian 
men and women. At such a place as Niagara tasteless build- 
ings, run up in wrong places with a view to money making, are 
perhaps necessary evils. It may be that they are not evils at 
all ; — that they give more pleasure than pain, seeing that they 
tend to the enjoyment of the multitude. But there are edifices 
of this description which cry aloud to the gods by the force of 
their own ugliness and malposition. As to such it may be said 
that there should somewhere exist a power capable of crushing 
them in their birth. This new obelisk or picture-building at 
Niagara is one of such. 

And now we will cross the water, and with this object will 
return by the bridge out of Goat Island on the main land of the 
American side. But as Ave do so let me say that one of the 
great charms of Niagara consists in this, — that over and above 
that one great object of wonder and beauty, there is so much 
little loveliness ; — loveliness especially of water I mean. There 
are little rivulets running here and there over little falls, with 
pendent boughs above them, and stones shining under their 
shallow depths. As the visitor stands and looks through the 
trees the rapids glitter before him, and then hide themselves 
behind islands. They glitter and sparkle in far distances under 
the bright foliage till the remembrance is lost, and one knows 
not which way they run. And then the river below, with its 
whirlpool ; — but we shall come to that by-and-by, and to the 
mad voyage which Avas made down the rapids by that mad 
captain who ran the gauntlet of the waters at the risk of his 
own life, with fifty to one against him, in order that he might 
save another man's i^roperty from the Sheriff. 

The readiest way across to Canada is by the ferry ; and on 
the American side this is very pleasantly done. You go into a 
little house, pay 20 cents, take a seat on a wooden car of won- 
derful shape, and on the touch of a spring find yourself travel- 
ling down an inclined plane of terrible declivity and at a very 
fast rate. You catch a glance of the river beloAV you, and 
recognize the fact that if the rope by which you are held should 
break, you would go down at a very fast rate indeed, — and 
find your final resting place in the river. As I have gone down 
some dozen times and have come to no such grief, I will not 
presume that you Avill be less lucky. Below there is a boat* 
generally ready. If it be not there, the place is not chosen 
amiss for a rest of ten minutes, for the lesser fall is close at 
hand, and the larger one is in full view. Looking at the rapid- 



NIAGARA. 95 

ity of the river you will think that the passage must be danger- 
ous and difficult. But no accidents ever happen, and the lad 
who takes you over seems to do it with sufficient ease. The 
walk up the hill on the other side is another thing. It is very 
steep, and for those who have not good locomotive power of 
their own, will be found to be disagreeable. In the full sea- 
son, however, carriages are generally waiting there. In so short 
a distance I have always been ashamed to trust to other legs 
than my own, but I have observed that Americans are always 
dragged up. I have seen single young men of from eighteen 
to twenty-live, from whose outward appearance no story of idle 
luxurious life can be read, carried about alone in carriages over 
distances which would be counted as nothing by any healthy 
English lady of fifty. None but the old and invalids should 
require the assistance of carriages in seeing Niagara, but the 
trade in carriages is to all appearance the most brisk trade 
there. 

Having mounted the hill on the Canada side you will walk 
on towards the falls. As I have said before, you will from 
this side look directly into the full circle of the upper cataract, 
while you will have before you at your left hand the whole ex- 
panse of the lesser fall. For those who desire to see all at a 
glance, who wish to comprise the whole Avith their eyes, and 
to leave nothing to be guessed, nothing to be surmised, this, 
no doubt, is the best point of view. 

You will be covered with spray as you walk up to the ledge 
of rocks, but I do not think that the spray will hurt you. If a 
man gets wet through going to his daily work, cold, catarrh, 
cough, and all their attendant evils may be expected ; but these 
maladies usually spare the tourist. Change of air, plenty of 
air, excellence of air, and increased exercise make these things 
powerless. I should therefore bid you disregard the spray. 
If, however, you are yourself of a different opinion, you may 
hire a suit of oil-cloth clothes, for, I believe, a quarter of a dol- 
lar. They are nasty of course, and have this further disadvant- 
age, that you become much more wet having them on than 
you would be without them. 

Here, on this side, you walk on to the very edge of the cat- 
aract, and, if your tread be steady and your legs firm, you dip 
your foot into the water exactly at the spot where the thin 
outside margin of the current reaches the rocky edge and jumps 
to join the mass of the fall. The bed of white foam beneath is 
certainly seen better here than elsewhere, and the green curve 
of the water is as bright here as when seen from the wooden 



96 NORTH AMERICA. 

rail across. But nevertheless I say again that that wooden 
rail is the one point from whence Niagara may be best seen 
aright. 

Close to the cataract, exactly at the spot from whence in 
former days the Table Rock used to project from the land over 
the boiling caldron below, there is now a shaft down which you 
will descend to the level of the river, and pass between the rock 
and the torrent. This Table Rock broke away from the cliff 
and fell, as up the whole course of the river the seceding rocks 
have split and fallen from time to time through countless years, 
and Avill continue to do till the bed of the npper lake is reached. 
You will descend this shaft, taking to yourself or not taking to 
yourself a suit of oil-clothes as you may think best. I have 
gone with and without the suit, and again recommend that they 
be left behind. I am inclined to think that the ordinary pay- 
ment should be made for their use, as otherwise it will appear 
to those whose trade it is to prepare them that you are injuring 
them in their vested rights. 

Some three years since I visited Niagara on my way back to 
England from Bermuda, and in a volume of travels which I 
then published I endeavoured to explain the impression made 
upon me by this passage between the rock and the waterfall. 
An author should not quote himself; but as I feel myself bound, 
in writing a chapter specially about Niagara, to give some ac- 
count of this strange position, I will venture to repeat my own 
words. 

In the spot to which I allude the visitor stands on a broad 
safe path, made of shingles, between the rock over which the 
water rushes and the rushing water. He will go in so far that 
the spray rising back from the bed of the torrent does not in- 
commode him. With this exception, the further he can go in 
the better ; but circumstances will clearly show him the spot 
to which he should advance. Unless the water be driven in 
by a very strong wind, five yards make the difference between 
a comparatively dry coat and an absolute wet one. And then 
let him stand with his back to the entrance, thus hiding the 
last glimmer of the expiring day. So standing he will look up 
among the falling waters, or down into the deep misty pit, 
from which they reascend in almost as palpable a bulk. The 
rock will be at his right hand, high and hard, and dark and 
straight, like the wall of some huge cavern, such as children 
enter in their dreams. For the first five minutes he will be 
looking but at the waters of a cataract, — at the waters, indeed, 
of such a cataract as we know no other, and at their interior 
curves which elsewhere we can not see. But by-and-by all this 



NIAGARA. 97 

will change. He will no longer be on a shingly path beneath 
a waterfall ; but that feeling of a cavern wall will grow upon 
him, of a cavern deep, below roaring seas, in which the waves 
are there, though they do not enter in upon him ; or rather not 
the waves, but the very bowels of the ocean. He will feel as 
though the floods surrounded him, coming and going with their 
wild sounds, and he will hardly recognize that though among 
them he is not in them. And they, as they fall with a con- 
tinual roar, not hurting the ear, but musical withal, will seem 
to move as the vast ocean waters may perhaps move in their 
internal currents. He Avill lose the sense of one continued de- 
scent, and think that they are passing round him in their ap- 
pointed courses. The broken spray that rises from the depth 
below, rises so strongly, so palpably, so rapidly, that the mo- 
tion in every direction will seem equal. And, as he looks on, 
strange colours will show themselves through the mist ; the 
shades of grey will become green or blue, with ever and anon 
a flash of white ; and then, when some gust of wind blows in 
with greater violence, the sea-girt cavern will become all dark 
and black. Oh, my friend, let there be no one there to speak 
to thee then; no, not even a brother. As you stand there 
speak only to the waters. 

Two miles below the falls the river is crossed by a suspen- 
sion bridge of marvellous construction. It afibrds two thor- 
oughfares, one above the other. The lower road is for car- 
riages and horses, and the upper one bears a railway belonging 
to the Great Western Canada line. The view from hence both 
up and down the river is very beautiful, for the bridge is built 
immediately over the first of a series of rapids. One mile be- 
low the bridge these rapids end in a broad basin called the 
whirlpool, and, issuing out of this, the current turns to the 
right through a narrow channel overhung by clifi*s and trees, 
and then makes its way down to Lake Ontario with compara- 
tive tranquillity. 

But I will beg you to take notice of those rapids from the 
bridge and to ask yourself what chance of life would remain to 
any ship, craft, or boat required by destiny to undergo naviga- 
tion beneath the bridge and down into that whirlpool. Here- 
tofore all men would have said that no chance of life could re- 
main to so ill-starred a bark. The navigation, however, has 
been efibcted. But men used to the river still say that the 
chances would be fifty to one against any vessel which should 
attempt to repeat the experiment. 

The story of that wondrous voyage was as follows. A small 

E 



98 NOETH AMEEICA. 

steamer called the Maid of the Mist was built upon the river, 
between the falls and the rapids, and was used for taking ad- 
venturous tourists up amidst the spray, as near to the cataract 
as was possible. The Maid of the Mist plied in this way for a 
year or two, and was, I believe, much patronized during the 
season. But in the early part of last summer an evil time had 
come. Either the Maid got into debt, or her owner had em- 
barked in other and less profitable speculations. At any rate 
he became subject to the law, and tidings reached him that the 
Sheriff would seize the Maid. On most occasions the Sheriff is 
bound to keep such intentions secret, seeing that property is 
moveable, and that an insolvent debtor will not always await 
the officers of justice. But with the poor Maid there was no 
need of such secresy. There Avas but a mile or so of water on 
which she could ply, and she was forbidden by the nature of 
her properties to make any Avay upon land. The Sheriff's prey 
therefore was easy and the poor Maid was doomed. 

In any country in the world but America such would have 
been the case, but an American would steam down Phlegethon 
to save his property from the Sheriff; he Avould steam down 
Phlegethon or get some one else to do it for him. Whether or 
no in this case the captain of the boat was the proprietor, or 
whether as I was told, he was paid for the job, I do not know; 
but he determined to run the rapids, and he procured two oth- 
ers to accompany him in the risk. He got up his steam, and 
took the Maid up amidst the spray according to his custom. 
Then suddenly turning on his course, he with one of his com- 
panions fixed himself at the wheel, while the other remained at 
his engine. I wish I could look into the mind of that man and 
understand what his thoughts were at that moment; what 
were his thoughts and what his beliefs. As to one of the men 
I was told that he was carried down, not knowing what he was 
about to do, but I am inclined to believe that all the three were 
joined together in the attempt. 

I was told by a man who saw the boat pass under the bridge, 
that she made one long leap down as she came thither, that her 
funnel was at once knocked flat on the deck by the force of the 
blow, that the waters covered her from stem to stern, and that 
then she rose again and skimmed into the whirlpool a mile be- 
low. When there she rode with comparative ease upon the 
waters, and took the sharp turn round into the river below 
without a struggle. The feat was done, and the Maid was res- 
cued from the Sheriff. It is said that she was sold below at 
the mouth of the river, and carried from thence over Lake On- 
tario and down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. 



NORTH AND WEST. 99 

CHAPTER VIII. 

NORTH AND WEST. 

From Niagara we determined to proceed north-west ; as far to 
the north-west as we could go with any reasonable hope of find- 
ing American citizens in a state of political civilization, and per- 
haps guided also in some measure by our hopes as to hotel accom- 
modation. Looking to these two matters we resolved to get across 
to the Mississippi, and to go up that river as far as the town of 
St. Paul and the falls of St. Anthony, which are some twelve miles 
above the town ; then to descend the river as far as the States of 
Iowa on the west, and Illinois on the east; and to return east- 
wards through Chicago and the large cities on the southern shores 
of Lake Erie, from whence we would go across to Albany, the 
capital of New York State, and down the Hudson to New York, 
the capital of the Western world. For such a journey, in which 
scenery was one great object, we were rather late, as we did not 
leave Niagara till the 10th of October; but though the winters 
are extremely cold through all this portion of the American con- 
tinent — 15, 20, and even 25 degrees below zero being an ordinary 
state of the atmosphere in latitudes equal to those of Florence, 
Nice, and Turin — nevertheless the autumns are mild, the noon- 
day being always warm, and the colours of the foliage are then in 
all their glory. I was also very anxious to ascertain, if it might 
be in my power to do so, with what spirit or true feeling as to the 
matter, the work of recruiting for the now enormous army of the 
States was going on in those remote regions. That men should 
be on fire in Boston and New York, in Philadelphia, and along 
the borders of secession, I could understand. I could understand 
also that they should be on fire throughout the cotton, sugar, and 
rice plantations of the South. But I could hardly understand 
that this political fervour should have communicated itself to the 
far-off farmers who had thinly spread themselves over the enor- 
mous wheat-growing districts of the North-West. St. Paul, the 
capital of Minnesota, is 900 miles directly north of St. Louis, the 
most northern point to which slavery extends in the Western 
States of the Union, and the farming lands of Minnesota stretch 
away again for some hundreds of miles north and west of St. Paul. 
Could it be that those scanty and far-off pioneers of agriculture, 
those frontier farmers who are nearly one half German and near- 
ly the other half Irish, would desert their clearings and ruin their 



100 NORTH AMERICA. 

chances of progress in the world for distant wars of which the 
causes must, as I thought, be to them unintelligible ? I had been 
told that distance had but lent enchantment to the view, and that 
the war was even more popular in the remote and newly-settled 
States than in those which have been longer known as great po- 
litical bodies. So I resolved that I would go and see. 

It may be as well to explain here that that great political Union 
hitherto called the United States of America may be more prop- 
erly divided into three than into two distinct interests. In En- 
gland we have long heard of North and South as pitted against 
each other, and we have always understood that tlie southern 
politicians or democrats have prevailed over the northern poli- 
ticians or republicans, because they were assisted in their views by 
northern men of mark who have held southern principles : — that 
is, by northern men who have been willing to obtain political pow- 
er by joining themselves to the southern party. That as far as I 
can understand has been the general idea in England, and in a 
broad way it has been true. But as years have advanced, and as 
the States have extended themselves westward, a third large par- 
ty has been formed, which sometimes rejoices to call itself The 
Great West ; and though at the present time the West and the 
North are joined together against the South, the interests of the 
North and the West are not, I think, more closely interwoven 
than are those of the West and South ; and when the final settle- 
ment of this question shall be made, there will doubtless be great 
difficulty in satisfying the different aspirations and feelings of two 
great free soil populations. The North, I think, will ultimately 
perceive that it will gain much by the secession of the South; but 
it will be very difficult to make the West believe that secession 
will suit its views. 

I will attempt in a rough way to divide the States, as they seem 
to divide themselves, into these three parties. As to the majority 
of them there is no difficulty in locating them ; but this cannot be 
done with absolute certainty as to some few that lie on the bor- 
ders. 

New England consists of six States, of which all of course be- 
long to the North. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut ; the six States 
which should be most dear to England, and in which the political 
success of the United States as a nation is to my eyes the most 
apparent. But even in them there was till quite of late a strong 
section so opposed to the republican party as to give a material 
aid to the South. This, I think, was particularly so in New 



NORTH AND WEST. 101 

Hampshire, from whence President Pierce came. He had been 
one of the senators from New Hampshire ; and yet to him as 
President is affixed the disgrace, whether truly affixed or not I 
do not say, of having first used his power in secretly organizing 
those arrangements which led to secession and assisted at its birth. 
In Massachusetts also itself there was a strong democratic party, 
of which Massachusetts now seems to be somewhat ashamed. 
Then, to make up the North, must be added the two great States 
of New York and Pennsylvania, and the small State of New Jer- 
sey. The West will not agree even to this absolutely, seeing that 
they claim all territory west of the Alleghenies, and that a portion 
of Pennsylvania, and some part also of New York lie westward 
of that range ; but in endeavouring to make these divisions ordi- 
narily intelligible I may say that the North consists of the nine 
States above named. But the North wdll also claim Maryland 
and Delaware, and the eastern half of Virginia. The North will 
claim them though they are attached to the South by joint par- 
ticipation in the great social institution of slavery, for Maryland, 
Delaware, and Virginia are slave States ; — and I think that the 
North will ultimately make good its claim. Maryland and Dela- 
ware lie, as it were, behind the capital, and Eastern Virginia is 
close upon the capital. And these regions are not tropical in their 
climate or influences. They are and have been slave States ; but 
will probably rid themselves of that taint and become a portion 
of the free North. 

The southern or slave States, properly so called, are easily de- 
fined. They are Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. 
The South will also claim Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, 
Delaware, and Maryland, and will endeavour to prove its right to 
the claim by the, fact of the social institution being the law of the 
land in those States. Of Delaware, Maryland, and Eastern Vir- 
ginia, I have already spoken. Western Virginia is, I think, so 
little tainted with slavery, that, as she stands even at present, she 
properly belongs to the West. As I now write the struggle is 
going on in Kentucky and Missouri. In Missouri the slave pop- 
ulation is barely more than a tenth of the whole, while in South 
Carolina and Mississippi it is more than half And, therefore, I 
venture to count Missouri among the western States, although 
slavery is still the law of the land within its borders. It is sur- 
rounded on three sides by free States of the West, and its soil, let 
us hope, must become free. Kentucky I must leave as doubtful, 
though I am inclined to believe that slavery will be abolished 



102 NORTH AMERICA. 

there also. Kentucky at any rate will never throw in its lot with 
the Southern States. As to Tennessee, it seceded heart and soul, 
and I fear that it must be accounted as southern, although the 
northern army has now, in May 1862, possessed itself of the great- 
er part of the State. 

To the great West remains an enormous territory, of which, 
however, the population is as yet but scanty ; though perhaps no 
portion of the world has increased so fast in population as have 
these western States. The list is as follows : Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, — to which I 
would add Missouri, and probably the western half of Virginia. 
We have then to account for the two already admitted States on 
the Pacific, California and Oregon, and also for the unadmitted 
Territories, Dacotah, Nebraska, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, 
Colorado, and Neveda. I should be refining too much for my 
present very general purpose, if I were to attempt to marshal these 
huge but thinly populated regions in either rank. Of California 
and Oregon it may probably be said that it is their ambition to 
form themselves into a separate division ; — a division which may 
be called the further West. 

I know that all statistical statements are tedious, and I believe 
that but few readers believe them. I will, however, venture to 
give the populations of these States in the order I have named 
them, seeing that power in America depends almost entirely on 
population. The census of 1860 gave the following results: — 

In the North. 

Maine 619,000 

New Hampshire 326,872 

Vermont 325,827 

Massachusetts 1,231,494 

Rhode Island -174,621 

Connecticut 460,670 

New York 3,851,563 

Pennsylvania 2,916,018 

New Jersey 676,034 

Total 10,582,099 

In the South — the population of which must be divided into 
free and slave. 



NORTH AND WEST. 



103 





Free. 


Slave. 


Total. 


Texas 


415,999 
354,245 
331,710 
407,051 
520,444 
81,885 
615.366 
308,186 
679,965 
859,578 


184,956 
312,186 
109,065 
479,607 
435,473 
63,809 
467,461 
407,185 
328,377 
287,112 


600,955 

666,431 

440,775 

886,658 

955,917 

145,694 

1,082,827 

715,371 

1,008,342 

1,146,690 


Louisiana 


Arkansas 


Mississippi 


Alabama 


Florida 


Georgia 


South Carolina 


North Carolina 


Tennessee 


Total 


4,574,429 


3,075,231 


7,649,660 





In the West. 

Ohio 2,377,917 

Indiana 1,350,802 

Illinois 1,691,238 

Michigan 754,291 

Wisconsin » 763,485 

Minnesota , 172,796 

Iowa 682,002 

Kansas 143,645 

Missouri ^ *1, 204,214 

Total 9,140,390^ 

* Of which number, in Missouri, 115,619 ai'e slaves. 

In the doubtful States. 



Maryland 
Delaware 
Virginia ,. 
Kentucky . 



Total. 



646,183 

110,548 

1,097,373 

920,077 



2,774,181 



Slave. 



85,382 

1,805 

495,826 

225,490 



808,503 



Total. 



731,565 

112,353 

1,593,199 

1,145,567 



3,582,684 



To these must be added to make up the population of the United 
States, as it stood in 1860. 

The separate district of Columbia, in which is 
included Washington, the seat of the Federal 

Government 75,321 

California 384,770 

Oregon 52,566 

The Territories of 

Dacotah „ 4,839 

Nebraska 28,892 

Washington 11,624 

Utah 49,000 

New Mexico 93,024 

Colorado 34,197 

Neveda 6,857 

Total ; 741,090 



104 NORTH AMERICA. 

And thus the total population may be given as follows : — 

North 10,582,099 

South 7,649,660 

West 9,140,390 

Doubtful 3,582,684 

Outlying States and Territories 741,090 

Total 31,695,923 

Each of the three interests would consider itself wronged by 
the division above made, but the South would probably be the 
loudest in asserting its gvievance. The South claims all the slave 
States, and would point to secession in Virginia to justify such 
claim, — and would point also to Maryland and Baltimore, declaring 
that secession would be as strong there as at New Orleans, if se- 
cession were practicable. Maryland and Baltimore lie behind 
Washington, and are under the heels of the northern troops, so 
that secession is not practicable ; but, the South would say that 
they have seceded in heart. In this the South would have some 
show of reason for its assertion ; but, nevertheless, I shall best con- 
vey a true idea of the position of these States by classing them as 
doubtful. When secession shall have been accomplished, — if ever 
it be accomplished, — it will hardly be possible that they should 
adhere to the South. 

It will be seen by the above tables that the population of the 
West is nearly equal to that of the North, and that therefore 
western power is almost as great as northern. It is almost as 
great already, and as population in the West increases faster than 
it does in the North, the two will soon be equalized. They are 
already sufficiently on a par to enable them to fight on equal terms, 
and they will be prepared for fighting — political fighting, if no oth- 
er — as soon as they have established their supremacy over a com- 
mon enemy. 

Whilst I am on the subject of population, I should explain — 
though the point is not one which concerns the present argument 
— that the numbers given, as they regard the South, include both 
the whites and blacks, the free men and the slaves. The political 
power of the South is of course in the hands of the white race 
only, and the total white population should therefore be taken as 
the number indicating the southern power. The political power 
of the South, however, as contrasted with that of the North, has, 
since the commencement of the Union, been much increased by the 
slave population. The slaves have been taken into account in de- 
termining the number of representatives which should be sent to 
Congress by each State. That number depends on the popula- 



NORTH AND WEST. 105 

tiou, but it was decided in 1787, that in counting up the number 
of representatives to which each State should be held to be en- 
titled, five slaves should represent three white men. A Southern 
population, therefore, of five thousand free men and five thousand 
slaves would claim as many representatives as a Northern popula- 
tion of eight thousand free men, although the voting would be 
confined to the free population. This has ever since been the law 
of the United States. 

The western power is nearly equal to that of the North, and 
this fl\ct, somewhat exaggerated in terms, is a frequent boast in 
the mouths of western men. " We ran Fremont for President," 
they say, " and had it not been for northern men with southern 
principles, we should have put him in the White House instead 
of the traitor Buchanan. If that had been done, there would 
have been no secession." How things might have gone had Fre- 
mont been elected in lieu of Buchanan, I will not pretend to say ; 
but the nature of the argument shows the difference that exists be- 
tween northern and western feeling. At the time that I was in 
the West, General Fremont was the great topic of public interest. 
Every newspaper was discussing his conduct, his ability as a sol- 
dier, his energy, and his fate. At that time General Maclellan 
was in command at Washington on the Potomac, it being under- 
stood that he held his power directly under the President, — free 
from the exercise of control on the part of the veteran General 
Scott, though at that time General Scott had not actually resign- 
ed his position as head of the army. And General Fremont, who 
some five years before had been "run" for President by the AVest- 
ern States, held another command of nearly equal independence 
in Missouri. He had been put over General Lyon in the western 
command, and directly after this General Lyon had fallen in battle 
at Springfield, in the first action in Avhich the opposing armies 
were engaged in the West. General Fremont at once proceeded 
to carry matters with a very high hand. On the 30th of August, 
1861, he issued a proclamation by which he declared martial law 
at St. Louis, the city at which he held his head quarters, and in- 
deed throughout the State of Missouri generally. In this procla- 
mation he declared his intention of exercising a severity beyond 
that ever threatened, as I believe, in modern warfare. He defines 
the region presumed to be held by his army of occupation, draw- 
ing his lines across the State, and then declares " that, all persons 
who shall be taken with arms in their hands within those lines 
shall be tried by Court Martial, and if found guilty will be shot." 
He then goes on to say that he will confiscate all the property of 

E2 



106 NORTH AMERICA. 

persons in the State who shall have taken up arms against the 
Union, or who shall have taken part with the enemies of the 
Union, and that he ivill make free all slaves belonging to such persons. 
This proclamation was not approved at Washington, and was 
modified by the order of the President. It was understood also 
that he issued orders for military expenditure, which were not 
recognized at Washington, and men began to understand that the 
army in the West was gradually assuming that irresponsible mili- 
tary position, which in disturbed countries and in times of civil 
war has so frequently resulted in a military dictatorship. Then 
there arose a clamour for the removal of General Fremont. A 
semi-official account of his proceedings, which had reached Wash- 
ington from an officer under his command, was made public ; and 
also the correspondence which took place on the subject between 
the President and General Fremont's wife. The officer in ques- 
tion was thereupon placed under arrest, but immediately released 
by orders from Washington. He then made official complaint 
of his General, sending forward a list of charges in which Fre- 
mont was accused of rashness, incompetency, want of fidelity of 
the interests of the Government, and disobedience to orders from 
head quarters. After a wliile the Secretary of War himself pro- 
ceeded from Washington to the quarters of General Fremont at 
St. Louis, and remained there for a day or two, making or pre- 
tending to make inquiry into the matter. But when he returned 
he left the General still in command. During the whole month 
of October the papers were occupied in declaring in the morning 
that General Fremont had been recalled from his command, and 
in the evening that he was to remain. In the mean time they 
who befriended his cause, and this included the whole West, were 
hoping from day to day that he would settle the matter for him- 
self and silence his accusers, by some great military success. Gen- 
eral Price held the command opposed to him, and men said that 
Fremont would sweep General Price and his army down the val- 
ley of the Mississippi into the sea. But General Price would not 
be so swept, and it began to appear that a guerilla warfare would 
prevail ; that General Price, if driven southwards, would reappear 
behind the backs of his pursuers, and that General Fremont would 
not accomplish all that was expected of him with that rapidity for 
which his friends had given him credit. So the newspapers still 
went on waging the war, and every morning General Fremont was 
recalled, and every evening they who had recalled him were shown 
up as having known nothing of the matter. 

"Never mind; he is a pioneer man, and will do a'most any- 



NORTH AND WEST. 107 

thing he puts his hand to," his friends in the West still said. *' He 
understands the frontier." Understanding the frontier is a great 
thing in Western America, across which the vanguard of civiliza- 
tion continues to march on in advance from year to year. " And 
it's he that is bound to sweep slavery from off the face of this Con- 
tinent. He's the man, and he's about the only man." I am not 
qualified to write the life of General Fremont, and can at present 
only make this slight reference to the details of his romantic ca- 
reer. That it has been full of romance, and that the man himself 
is indued with a singular energy and a high romantic idea of what 
may be done by power and will, there is no doubt. Five times he 
has crossed the continent of North America from Missouri to Or- 
egon and California, enduring great hardships in the service of ad- 
vancing civilization and knowledge. That he has considerable 
talent, immense energy, and strong self-confidence, I believe. He 
is a frontier man ; one of those who care nothing for danger, and 
who would dare anything with the hope of accomplishing a great 
career. But I have never heard that he has shown any practical 
knowledge of high military matters. It may be doubted whether 
a man of this stamp is well fitted to hold the command of a na- 
tion's army for great national purposes. May it not even be pre- 
sumed that a man of this class is of all men the least fitted for 
such a work? The officer required should be a man with two 
specialities — a speciality for military tactics, and a speciality for 
national duty. The army in the West was far removed from head 
quarters in Washington, and it was peculiarly desirable that the 
General commanding it should be one possessing a strong idea of 
obedience to the control of his own Government. Those frontier 
capabilities, that self-dependent energy for which his friends gave 
Fremont, — and probably justly gave him, — such unlimited credit 
are exactly the qualities which are most dangerous in such a po- 
sition. 

I have endeavoured to explain the circumstances of the West- 
ern command in Missouri, as they existed at the time when I was 
in the North- Western States, in order that the double action of 
the North and West may be understood. I, of course, was not in 
the secret of any ofiicial persons, but I could not but feel sure that 
the Government in Washington would have been glad to have re- 
moved Fremont at once from the command, had they not feared 
that by doing so they would have created a schism, as it were, in 
their own camp, and have done much to break up the integrity 
or oneness of Northern loyalty. The western people almost to a 
man desired abolition. The States there were sending out their 



108 NORTH AMERICA. 

tens of thousands of young men into the army with a prodigality 
as to their only source of wealth which they hardly recognized 
themselves, because this to them was a fight against slavery. The 
western population has been increased to a wonderful degree by a 
German infusion ; — so much so that the western towns appear to 
have been peopled with Germans. I found regiments of volun- 
teers consisting wholly of Germans. And the Germans are all 
abolitionists. To all the men of tlie West the name of Fremont 
is dear. He is their Hero, and their Hercules. He is to cleanse 
the stables of the southern king, and turn the waters of emancipa- 
tion through the foul stalls of slavery. And, therefore, though the 
Cabinet in Washington would have been glad for many reasons to 
have removed Fremont in October last, it was at first scared from 
committing itself to so strong a measure. At last, however, the 
charges made against him were too fully substantiated to allow of 
their being set on one side, and early in November, 1861, he was 
superseded. I shall be obliged to allude again to General Fre- 
mont's career as I go on with my narrative. 

At this time the North was looking for a victory on the Poto- 
mac ; but they were no longer looking for it with that impatience 
which in the summer had led to the disgrace at Bull's Run. They 
had recognized the fact that their troops must be equipped, drilled, 
and instructed ; and they had also recognized the perhaps greater 
fact, that their enemies were neither weak, cowardly, nor badly 
officered. I have always thought that the tone and manner with 
which the North bore the defeat at Bull's Run was creditable to 
it. It was never denied, never explained away, never set down as 
trifling. "We have been whipped!" was what all Northerners 
said, — " We've got an almighty whipping, and here we are." I 
have heard many Englishmen complain of this, saying that the 
matter was taken almost as a joke, — that no disgrace was felt, 
and the licking was owned by a people who ought never to have 
allowed that they had been licked To all this, however, I de- 
mur. Their only chance of speedy success consisted in their see- 
ing and recognizing the truth. Had they confessed the whipping 
and then sat down with their hands in their pockets, — had they 
done as second-rate boys at school will do, declare that they had 
been licked, and then feel that all the trouble is over, — they would 
indeed have been open to reproach. The old mother across the 
water would in such case have disowned her son. But they did 
the very reverse of this. "I have been whipped," Jonathan said, 
and he immediately went into training under a new system for an- 
other fight. 



NORTH AND WEST. 109 

And so all through September and October the great armies on 
the Potomac rested comparatively in quiet, the Northern forces 
drawing to themselves immense levies. The general confidence in 
Maclellan was then very great, and the cautious measures by which 
he endeavoured to bring his vast untrained body of men under dis- 
cipline were such as did at that time recommend themselves to 
most military critics. Early in September the northern party ob- 
tained a considerable advantage by taking the fort at Cape Hat- 
teras, in North Carolina, situated on one of those long banks which 
lie along the shores of the Southern States ; but towards the end 
of October they experienced a considerable reverse in an attack 
which was made on the Secessionists by General Stone, and in 
which Colonel Baker was killed. Colonel Baker had been senator 
for Oregon, and was well known as an orator. Taking all things 
together, however, nothing material had been done up to the end 
of October ; and at that time northern men were waiting — not per- 
haps impatiently, considering the great hopes, and perhaps great 
fears which filled their hearts, but with eager expectation for some 
event of which they might talk with pride. 

The man to whom they had trusted all their hopes was young 
for so great a command. I think that at this time (October 1861) 
General Maclellan was not yet thirty-five. He had served early 
in life in the Mexican war, having come originally from Pennsyl- 
vania, and having been educated at the military college at West 
Point. During our war with Russia he was sent to the Crimea 
by his own Government in conjunction with two other officers of 
the United States army, that they might learn all that was to be 
learned there as to military tactics, and report especially as to the 
manner in which fortifications were made and attacked. I have 
been informed that a very able report was sent in by them to the 
Government, on their return, and that this was drawn up by Mac- 
lellan. But in America a man is not only a soldier or always a 
soldier ; nor is he always a clergyman if once a clergyman. He 
takes a spell at anything suitable that may be going. And in this 
way Maclellan was for some years engaged on the Central Illinois 
Railway, and was for a considerable time the head manager of that 
concern. We all know with what suddenness he rose to the high- 
est command in the army immediately after the defeat at Bull's 
Run. 

I have endeavoured to describe what were the feelings of the 
West in the autumn of 1861 with regard to the war. The excite- 
ment and eagerness there were very great, and they were perhaps 
as great in the North. But in the North the matter seemed to 
me to be regarded from a different point of view. As a rule, the 



110 NORTH AMERICA. 

men of the North are not abolitionists. It is quite certain that 
they were not so before secession began. They hate slavery as 
we in England hate it ; but they are aware, as also are we, that 
the disposition of four million of black men and women forms a 
question which cannot be solved by the chivalry of any modern 
Orlando. The property invested in these four million slaves forms 
the entire wealth of the South. If they could be wafted by a phil- 
anthropic breeze back to the shores of Africa, — a breeze of which 
the philanthropy would certainly not be appreciated by those so 
wafted, — the South would be a wilderness. The subject is one as 
full of difficulty as any with which politicians of these days are 
tormented. The Northerners fully appreciate this, and as a rule 
are not abolitionists in the western sense of the word. To them 
the war is recommended by precisely those feelings which ani- 
mated us when we fought for our colonies, — when we strove to 
put down American independence. Secession is rebellion against 
the government: and is all the more bitter to the North because 
that rebellion broke out at the first moment of northern ascendan- 
cy. "We submitted," the North says, "to southern Presidents, 
and southern statesmen, and southern councils, because we obeyed 
the vote of the people. But as to you — the voice of the people is 
nothing in your estimation ! At the first moment in which the 
popular vote places at Washington a President with Northern feel- 
ings, yOu rebel. We submitted in your days ; and by heaven, you 
shall submit in ours ! We submitted loyally ; through love of the 
law and the Constitution. You have disregarded the law, and 
thrown over the Constitution. But you shall be made to submit, 
as a child is made to submit to its governor." 

It must also be remembered that on commercial questions the 
North and the West are divided. The Morrill tariff is as odious 
to the West as it is to the South. The South and West are both 
agricultural productive regions, desirous of sending cotton and corn 
to foreign countries and of receiving back foreign manufactures on 
the best terms. But the North is a manufacturing country. A 
poor manufacturing country as regards excellence of manufacture 
— and therefore the more anxious to foster its own growth by pro- 
tective laws. The Morrill tariff is very injurious to the West, and 
is odious there. I might add that its folly has already been so far 
recognized even in the North, as to make it very generally odious 
there also. 

So much I have said endeavouring to make it understood how 
far the North and West were united in feeling against the South 
in the autumn of 1861, and how far there existed between them a 
diversity of interests. 



FKOM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. Ill 

CHAPTER IX. 

FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 

From Niagara we went by the Canada Great Western Rail- 
way to Detroit, the big city of Michigan, It is an American 
institution that the States should have a commercial capital, 
or what I call their big city, as well as a political capital, which 
may as a rule be called the State's central city. The object in 
choosing the political capital is average nearness of approach 
from the various confines of the State; but commerce submits 
to no such Procrustean laws in selecting her capitals, and con- 
sequently she has placed Detroit on the borders of Michigan, 
on the shore of the neck of water which joins Lake Huron to 
Lake Erie, through which all the trade must flow which comes 
down from Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron, on its way 
to the Eastern States and to Europe. We had thought of go- 
ing from Buflalo across Lake Erie to Detroit; but we found 
that the better class of steamers had been taken off the waters 
for the winter. And we also found that navigation among 
these lakes is a mistake whenever the necessary journey can be 
taken by railway. Their waters are by no means smooth ; and 
then there is nothing to be seen. I do not know whether oth- 
ers may have a feeling, almost instinctive, that lake navigation 
must be pleasant, — that lakes must of necessity be beautiful. I 
have such a feeling ; but not now so strong as formerly. Such 
an idea should be kept for use in Europe, and never brought 
over to America with other travelling gear. The lakes in Amer- 
ica are cold, cumbrous, uncouth, and uninteresting ; intended 
by nature for the conveyance of cereal produce, but not for the 
comfort of travelling men and women. So we gave up our 
plan of traversing the lake, and passing back into Canada by 
the suspension bridge at Niagara, we reached the Detroit 
river at Windsor by the Great Western line, and passed 
thence by the ferry into the city of Detroit. 

In making this journey at night we introduced ourselves to 
the thoroughly American institution of sleeping-cars ; — that is, 
of cars in which beds are made up for travellers. The travel- 
ler may have a whole bed, or half a bed, or no bed at all as he 
pleases, paying a dollar or half a dollar extra should he choose 
the partial or full fruition of a couch. I confess I have always 
taken a dehght in seeing these beds made up, and consider 
that the operations of the change are generally as well executed 



112 NORTH AMERICA. 

as the manoeuvres of any pantomime at Drury Lane. The work 
is usually done by negroes or coloured men ; and the domestic 
negroes of America are always light-handed and adroit. The 
nature of an American car is no doubt known to all men. It 
looks as far removed from all bedroom accommodation, as the 
baker's barrow does from the steam-engine into which it is to 
be converted by harlequin's wand. But the negro goes to 
work much more quietly than the harlequin, and for every four 
seats in the railway car he builds up four beds, almost as 
quickly as the hero of the pantomime goes through his per- 
formance. The great glory of the Americans is in their won- 
drous contrivances, — in their patent remedies for the usually 
troublous operations of life. In their huge hotels all the bell- 
ropes of each house ring on one bell only, but a patent indica- 
tor discloses a number, and the whereabouts of the ringer is 
shown. One fire heats every room, passage, hall, and cup- 
board, — and does it so effectually that the inhabitants are all 
but stifled. Soda-water bottles open themselves without any 
trouble of wire or strings. Men and women go up and down 
stairs without motive power of tlieir own. Ilot and cold wa- 
ter are laid on to all the chambers; — though it sometimes hap- 
pens that the water from both taps is boiling, and that when 
once turned on it cannot be turned off again by any human en- 
ergy. Everything is done by a new and wonderful patent con- 
trivance ; and of all their wonderful contrivances that of their 
railroad beds is by no means the least. For every four seats 
the negro builds up four beds, — that is, four half-beds or ac- 
commodation for four persons. Two are suj^posed to be be- 
low on the level of the ordinary four seats, and two up above 
on shelves which are let down from the roof. Mattresses slip 
out from one nook and pillows from another. Blankets are 
added, and the bed is ready. Any over particular individual 
— an islander, for instance, who hugs his chains — will gener- 
ally prefer to pay the dollar for the double accommodation. 
Looking at the bed in the light of a bed, — taking as it were 
an abstract view of it, — or comparing it with some other bed 
or beds with which the occupant may have acquaintance, I can- 
not say that it is in all respects perfect. But distances are long 
in America; and he who declines to travel by night will lose 
very much time. He who does so travel will find the railway 
bed a great relief I must confess that the feehng of dirt on 
the following morning is rather oppressive. 

From Windsor on the Canada side we passed over to Detroit 
in the State of Michigan by a steam ferry. But ferries in En- 



FEOM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 113 

gland and ferries in America are very different. Here on this 
Detroit ferry, some hundred of passengers who were going for- 
ward from the other side Avithout delay, at once sat down to 
breakfast. I may as well explain the way in which disposition 
is made of one's luggage as one takes these long journeys. The 
traveller when he starts has his baggage checked. He abandons 
his trunk — generally a box studded with nails, as long as a cof- 
fin and as high as a linen chest, — and in return for this he re- 
ceives an iron ticket with a number on it. As he approaches 
the end of his first instalment of travel, and while the engine 
is still working its hardest, a man comes up to him, bearing 
with him suspended on a circular bar an infinite variety of other 
checks. The traveller confides to this man his wishes ; and if 
he be going further w^ithout delay, surrenders his check and 
receives a counter-check in return. Then while the train is still 
in motion, the new destiny of the trunk is imparted to it. But 
another man, with another set of checks, also comes the way, 
walking leisurely through the train as he performs his work. 
This is the minister of the hotel-omnibus institution. His busi- 
ness is with those who do not travel beyond the next terminus. 
To him, if such be your intention, you make your confidence, 
giving up your tallies and taking other tallies, by way of re- 
ceipt ; and your luggage is afterwards found by you in the hall 
of your hotel. There is undoubtedly very much of comfort in 
this; and the mind of the traveller is lost in amazement as he 
thinks of the futile efforts with which he would struggle to re- 
gain his luggage were there no such arrangement. Enormous 
piles of boxes are disclosed on the platform at all the larger 
stations, the numbers of which are roared forth with quick voice 
by some two or three railway denizens at once. A modest En- 
glish voyager with six or seven small packages, would stand no 
chance of getting anything if he were left to his own devices. 
As it is I am bound to say that the thing is well done. I have 
had my desk with all my money in it lost for a day, and my 
black leather bag was on one occasion sent back over the 
line. They, however, were recovered ; and on the whole I feel 
grateful to the check system of the American railways. And 
then, too, one never hears of extra luggage. Of weight they 
are quite regardless. On two or three occasions an overwrought 
official has muttered between his teeth that ten packages were 
a great many, and that some of those "light fixings" might have 
been made up into one. And when I came to understand that 
the number of every check was entered in a book, and re-en- 
tered at every change, I did whisper to my wife that she ought 



114 NORTH AMERICA. 

to do without a bonnet-box. The ten, however, went on, and 
were always duly protected. I must add, however, that arti- 
cles requiring tender treatment will sometimes reappear a little 
the worse from the hardships of their journey. 

I have not much to say of Detroit ; not much, that is, beyond 
what I have to say of all the North. It is a large well-built 
half-finished city, lying on a convenient water Avay, and spread- 
ing itself out with promises of a wide and still wider pros^Derity. 
It has about it perhaps as little of intrinsic interest as any of 
those large western towns which I visited. It is not so pleas- 
ant as Milwaukee, nor so picturesque as St. Paul, nor so grand 
as Chicago, nor so civilized as Cleveland, nor so busy as Buifalo. 
Indeed Detroit is neither pleasant nor picturesque at all. I will 
not say that it is uncivilized, but it has a harsh, crude, unpre- 
possessing appearance. It has some 70,000 inhabitants, and 
good accommodation for shipping. It was doing an enormous 
business before the war began, and when these troublous times 
are over will no doubt again go ahead. I do not, however, 
think it well to recommend any Englishman to make a special 
visit to Detroit, who may be wholly uncommercial in his views 
and travel in search of that which is either beautiful or interest- 
ing. 

From Detroit we continued our course westward across the 
State of Michigan through a country that was absolutely wild 
till the railway pierced it. Very much of it is still absolutely 
wild. For miles upon miles the road passes the untouched for- 
est, showing that even in Michigan the great work of civiliza- 
tion has hardly more than been commenced. As one thinks of 
the all but countless population which is before long to be fed 
from these regions, of the cities which will grow here, and of 
the amount of government which in due time will be required, 
• one can hardly fail to feel that the division of the United States 
into separate nationalities is merely a part of the ordained work 
of creation, as arranged for the well-being of mankind. The 
States already boast of thirty millions of inhabitants, — not of 
unnoticed and unnoticeable beings, requiring little, knowing 
little, and doing little, such as are the Eastern hordes which 
may be counted by tens of millions ; but of men and women 
who talk loudly and are ambitious, who eat beef, who read 
and write, and understand the dignity of manhood. But these 
thirty millions are as nothing to the crowds which will grow 
sleek and talk loudly, and become aggressive on these wheat 
and meat producing levels. The country is as yet but touched 
by the pioneering hand of population. In the old countries 



FEOM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 115 

agriculture, following on the heels of pastoral patriarchal life, 
preceded the birth of cities. But in this young world the cities 
have come first. The new Jasons, blessed with the experience 
of the old world adventurers, have gone forth in search of 
their golden fleeces armed with all that the science and skill 
of the East had as yet produced, and in setting up their new 
Colchis have begun by the erection of first-class hotels and the 
fabrication of railroads. Let the old world bid them God speed 
in their work. Only it would be well if they could be brought 
to acknowledge from whence they have learned all that they 
know. 

Our route lay right across the State to a place called Grand 
Plaven on Lake Michigan, from whence we Avere to take boat 
for Milwaukee, a town in Wisconsin on the opposite or western 
shore of the lake. Michigan is sometimes called the Peninsular 
State from the fact that the main part of its territory is sur- 
rounded by Lakes Michigan and Huron, by the little Lake St. 
Clair, and by Lake Erie. It jnts out to the northward from 
the main land of Indiana and Ohio, and is circumnavigable on 
the east, north, and west. These particulars refer, however, to 
part of the State only, for a portion of it lies on the other side 
of Lake Michigan, between that and Lake Superior. I doubt 
whether any large inland territory in the world is blessed with 
such facilities of water carriage. 

On arriving at Grand Haven we found that there had been a 
storm on the lake, and that the passengers from the trains of 
the preceding day were still remaining there, waiting to be car- 
ried over to Milwaukee. The water, however, — or the sea as 
they all call it, — was still very high, and the captain declared his 
intention of remaining there that night. Whereupon all our fel- 
low-travellers huddled themselves into the great lake steam- 
boat, and proceeded to carry on life there as though they were 
quite at home. The men took themselves to the bar-room and 
smoked cigars and talked about the war with their feet upon 
the counter, and the women got themselves into rocking-chairs 
in the saloon and sat there listless and silent, but not more list- 
less and silent than they usually are in the big drawing-rooms 
of the big hotels. There was supper there, precisely at six 
o'clock, beefsteaks, and tea, and apple jam, and hot cakes, and 
light fixings, to all which luxuries an American deems himself 
entitled, let him have to seek his meal where he may. And I 
was soon informed with considerable energy, that let the boat 
be kept there as long as it might by stress of weather, the beef- 
steaks and apple jam, light fixings and heavy fixings, must be 



116 NORTH AMERICA. 

supplied at the cost of the owners of the ship. "Your first sup- 
per you pay for," my informant told me, "because you eat that 
on your own account. What you consume after that comes of 
their doing, because they don't start ; and if it's three meals a 
day for a week, it's their look out." It occurred to me that 
Tmder such circumstances a captain would be very apt to sail 
either in foul weather or in fair. 

It was a bright moonlight night, moonlight such as w^e rarely 
have in England, and I started off by myself for a walk, that I 
might see of what nature were the environs of Grand Haven. 
A more melancholy place I never beheld. The town of Grand 
Haven itself is placed on the opposite side of a creek, and was 
to be reached by a ferry. On our side, to which the railway 
came and from which the boat was to sail, there was nothing 
to be seen but sandhills which stretched away for miles along 
the shore of the lake. There were great sand mountains, and 
sand valleys, on the surface of Avhich Avere scattered the debris 
of dead trees, scattered logs white Avith age, and boughs half 
buried beneath the sand. Grand Haven itself is but a poor 
place, not having succeeded in catching much of the commerce 
Avhich comes across the lake from Wisconsin, and Avhich takes 
itself on east Avar ds by the railway. Altogether it is a dreary 
place, such as might break a man's heart, should he find that 
inexorable fate required him there to pitch his tent. 

On my return I Avent doAvn into the bar-room of the steamer, 
put my feet upon the counter, lit my cigar, and struck into the 
debate then proceeding on the subject of the Avar. I was get- 
ting West, and General Fremont Avas the hero of the hour. 
" He's a frontier man, and that's Avhat Ave Avant. I guess he'll 
about go through. Yes, sir." "As for relieving General Fre- 
mont," — Avith the accent ahvays strongly on the "raont," — "I 
guess you may as well talk of relicA^ing the Avhole West. They 
Avon't meddle Avith Fre-mont. They are beginning to knoAV in 
Washington Avhat stufiThe's made of." "Why, sir; there are 
50,000 men in these States Avho Avill folloAV Fre-mont, Avho 
Avould not stir a foot after any other man." From which, and 
the like of it in many other places, I began to understand hoAV 
difficult Avas the task which the statesmen in Washington had 
in hand. 

I received no pecuniary advantage Avhatever from that law 
as to the steam-boat meals which my ncAv friend had revealed 
to me. For my one supper of course I paid, looking forward 
to any amount of subsequent gratuitous provisions. But in 
the course of the night the ship sailed, and we found our- 



FKOM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 117 

selves at Milwaukee in time for breakfast on the following 
morning. 

Milwaukee is a pleasant town, a very pleasant town, contain- 
ing 45,000 inhabitants. How many of my readers can boast 
that they know anything of Milwaukee, or even have heard of 
it ? To me its name was unknown until I saw it on huge rail- 
way placards stuck up in the smoking-rooms and lounging halls 
of all American hotels. It is the big town of Wisconsin, 
whereas Madison is the capital. It stands immediately on the 
western shore of Lake Michigan, and is very pleasant. Why 
it should be so, and why Detroit should be the contrary, I can 
hardly tell ; only I think that the same verdict would be given 
by any English tourist. It must be always borne in mind that 
10,000 or 40,000 inhabitants in an American town, and espe- 
cially in any new western town, is a number which means much 
more than would be implied by any similar number as to an 
old town in Europe. Such a population in America consumes 
double the amount of beef which it would in England, wears 
double the amount of clothes, and demands double as much of 
the comforts of life. If a census could be taken of the watches 
it would be found, I take it, that the American population pos- 
sessed among them nearly double as many as Avould the En- 
glish ; and I fear also that it would be found that many more 
of the Americans were readers and writers by habit. In any 
large town in England it is probable that a higher excellence 
of education would be found than in Milwaukee, and also a 
style of life into which more of refinement and more of luxury 
had found its w^ay. But the general level of these things, of 
material and intellectual well being — of beef, that is, and book 
learning — is no doubt infinitely higher in a ncAv American than 
in an old European town. Such an animal as a beggar is as 
much unknown as a mastodon. Men out of work and in want 
are almost unknown. I do not say that there are none of the 
hardships of life, — and to them I will come by-and-by ; but want 
is not known as a hardship in these towns, nor is that dense 
ignorance in which so large a proportion of our town popu- 
lations is still steeped. And then the town of 40,000 inhabit^ 
ants is spread over a surface which would suffice in England 
for a city of four times the size. Our towns in England, — and 
the towns, indeed, of Europe generally, — have been built as they 
have been wanted. No aspiring ambition a^ to hundreds of 
thousands of people warmed the bosoms of their first founders. 
Two or three dozen men required habitations in the same lo- 
cality, and clustered them together closely. Many such have 



118 NORTH AMERICA. 

failed and died out of the world's notice. Others have thriven, 
and houses have been packed on to houses till London and 
Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow have been produced. Poor 
men have built, or have had built for them, wretched lanes ; and 
rich men have erected grand palaces. From the nature of their 
beginnings such has, of necessity, been the manner of their cre- 
ation. But in America, and especially in Western America, 
there has been no such necessity and there is no such result. 
The founders of cities have had4he experience of the world 
before them. They have known of sanitary laws as they began. 
That sewerage, and water, and gag, and good air would be 
needed for a thriving community has been to them as much a 
matter of fact as are the well understood combinations between 
timber and nails, and bricks and mortar. They have known 
that water carriage is almost a necessity for commercial success, 
and have chosen their sites accordingly. Broad streets cost as 
little, while land by the foot is not as yet of value to be regard- 
ed, as those which are narrow ; and therefore the sites of towns 
have been prepared with noble avenues, and imposing streets. 
A city at its commencement is laid out with an intention that 
it shall be populous. The houses are not all built at once, but 
there are the places allocated for them. The streets are not 
made, but there are the spaces. Many an abortive attempt at 
municipal greatness has so been made and then all but aban- 
doned. There i^re wretched villages with huge straggling 
parallel ways which will never grow into towns. They are the 
failures, — failures in which the pioneers of civilization, frontier 
men as they call themselves, have lost their tens of thousands 
of dollars. But when the success comes ; when the happy hit 
has been made, and the ways of commerce have been truly fore- 
seen with a cunning eye, then a great and prosperous city 
springs up, ready made, as it were, from the earth. Such a 
town is Milwaukee, now containing 45,000 inhabitants, but with 
room apparently for double that number ; with room for four 
times that number, were men packed as closely there as they 
are with us. 

In the principal business streets of all these towns one sees 
vast buildings. They are usually called blocks, and are often 
so denominated in large letters on their front, as Portland Block, 
Devereux Block, Buel's Block. Such a block may face to two, 
three, or even four streets, and, as I presume, has generally been 
a matter of one special speculation. It may be divided into 
separate houses, or kept for a single purpose, such as that of an 
hotel, or grouped into shops below, and into various sets of 



FEOM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 119 

chambers above. I have had occasion in various towns to 
mount the stairs within these blocks, and have generally found 
some portion of them vacant; — have sometimes found the great- 
er portion of them vacant. ^«Men build on an enormous scale, 
three times, ten times as n^h as is wanted. The only measure 
of size is an increase on what men have built before. Monroe 
P. Jones, the speculator, is very probably ruined, and then be- 
gins the world again, nothing daunted. But Jones' block re- 
mains, and gives to the city in its aggregate a certain amount 
of wealth. Or the block becomes at once of service and finds 
tenants. In which case Jones probably sells it and immediately 
builds two others twice as big. That Monroe P. Jones w^ill en- 
counter ruin is almost a matter of course ; but then he is none 
the worse for being ruined. It hardly makes him unhappy. 
He is greedy of dollars with a terrible covetousness ; but he is 
greedy in order that he may speculate more widely. He would 
sooner have built Jones' tenth block, with a prospect of com- 
pleting a twentieth, than settle himself down at rest for life as 
the owner of a Chatsworth or a Woburn. As for his children 
he has no desire of leaving them money. Let the girls marry. 
And for the boys, — for them it will be good to begin as he be- 
gun. If they cannot build blocks for themselves, let them earn 
their bread in the blocks of other men. So Monroe P. Jones, 
with his million of dollars accomplished, advances on to a new 
frontier, goes to work again on a new city, and loses it all. As 
an individual I differ very much from Monroe P. Jones. The 
first block accomplished, with an adequate rent accruing to me 
as the builder, I fancy that I should never try a second. But 
Jones is undoubtedly the man for the West. It is that love of 
money to come, joined to a strong disregard for money made, 
which constitutes the vigorous frontier mind, the true pioneer- 
ing organization. Monroe P. Jones would be a great man to 
all posterity, if only he had a poet to sing of his valour. 

It may be imagined how large in proportion to its inhabit- 
ants Avill be a town which spreads itself in this way. There 
are great houses left untenanted, and great gaps left unfilled. 
But if the place be successful, — if it promise success, it will be 
seen at once that there is life all through it. Omnibuses, or 
street cars working on rails run hither and thither. The shops 
that have been opened are well filled. The great hotels are 
thronged. The quays are crowded with vessels, and a general 
feeling of progress pervades the place. It is easy to perceive 
whether or no an American town is going ahead. The days 
of my visit to Milwaukee were days of civil war and national 



120 NORTH AMERICA. 

trouble, but in spite of civil war and national trouble Milwau- 
kee looked healthy. 

I have said that there was but little poverty, — little to be 
seen of real want in these thriving towns, but that they who 
laboured in them had nevertheless their own hardships. This 
is so. I would not have any man believe that he can take him- 
self to the Western States of America, — to those States of 
which I am now speaking, — Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 
Iowa, or Illinois, and there by industry escape the ills to which 
flesh is heir. The labouring Irish in these towns eat meat 
seven days a week, but I have met many a labouring Irishman 
among them who has wished himself back in his old cabin. In- 
dustry is a good thing, and there is no bread so sweet as that 
which is eaten in the sweat of a man's brow; but labour car- 
ried to excess wearies the mind as well as body, and the sweat 
that is ever running makes the bread bitter. There is, I think, 
no task-master over free labour so exacting as an American. 
He knows nothing of hours, and seems to have that idea of a 
man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks that he 
will go for ever. I wish those masons in London who strike 
for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the 
labour market of Western America for a spell. And moreover, 
which astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried, — as 
it were forced forward at their Avork, in a manner which to an 
English workman would be intolerable. This surprised me 
much, as it was at variance with our, — or perhaps I should say 
with my, — preconceived ideas as to American freedom. I had 
fancied that an American citizen would not submit to be driv- 
en ; — that the spirit of the country if not the spirit of the indi- 
vidual would have made it impossible. I thought that the shoe 
would have pinched quite on the other foot. But I found that 
such driving did exist ; and American masters in the West with 
whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject all admit- 
ted it. "Those men '11 never half move unless they're driven," 
a foreman said to me once as we stood together over some 
twenty men who were at their work. " They kinder look for 
it, and don't well know how to get along when they miss it." 
It was not his business at this moment to drive ; — nor was he 
driving. He was standing at some little distance from the 
scene with me, and speculating on the sight before him. I 
thought the men were working at their best ; but their move- 
ments did not satisfy his practised eye, and he saw at a glance 
that there was no one immediately over them. 

But there is worse even than this. Wages in these regions 



FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 121 

are what we should call high. An agricultural labourer will 
earn perhaps fifteen dollars a month and his board ; and a town 
labourer will earn a dollar a day. A dollar may be taken as 
representing four shillings, though it is in fact more. Food in 
these parts is much cheaper than in England, and therefore the 
wages must be considered as very good. In making, however, 
a just calculation it must be borne in mind that clothing is 
dearer than in England and that much more of it is necessary. 
The wages nevertheless are high, and will enable the labourer 
to save money, — if only he can get them paid. The complaint 
that wages are held back and not even ultimately paid is very 
common. There is no fixed rule for satisfying all such claims 
once a week ; and thus debts to labourers are contracted andj 
when contracted are ignored. With us there is a feeling tha9 
it is pitiful, mean almost beyond expression, to' wrong a labour-! 
er of his hire. We have men who go in debt to tradesmen) 
perhaps without a thought of paying them; — but when we' 
speak of such a one who has descended into the lowest mire 
of insolvency, we say that he has not paid his Avasherwoman. 
Out there in the West the washerwoman is as fair game as 
the tailor, the domestic servant as the wine merchant. If a 
man be honest he will not willingly take either goods or labour 
without payment ; and it may be hard to prove that he who 
takes the latter is more dishonest than he who takes the for- 
mer ; but with us there is a prejudice in favour of one's wash- 
erwoman by which the western mind is not weakened. " They 
certainly have to be smart to get it," a gentleman said to me 
whom I taxed on the subject. " You see on the frontier a 
man is bound to be smart. If he ain't smart he'd better go 
back East; — perhaps as far as Europe. He'll do there." I 
had got my answer, and my friend had turned the question. 
But the fact was admitted by him as it had been by many 
others. 

Why this should be so, is a question, to answer which thor- 
oughly would require a volume in itself. As to the driving, 
why should men submit to it, seeing that labour is abundant, 
and that in all newly settled countries the labourer is the true 
hero of the age ? In answer to this is to be alleged the fact 
that hired labour is chiefly done by fresh comers, by Irish and 
Germans, who have not as yet among them any combination 
sufficient to protect them from such usage. The men over 
them are new as masters, — masters who are rough themselves, 
who themselves have been roughly driven, and who have not 
learned to be gracious to those below them. It is a part of 

F 



122 NOETH AMERICA. 

their contract that very hard work shall be exacted ; and the 
drivmg resolves itself into this, — that the master looking after 
his own interest is constantly accusing his labourer of a breach 
of his part of the contract. The men no doubt do become used 
to it, and slacken probably in their endeavours when the tongue 
of the master or foreman is not heard. But as to that matter 
of non-payment of wages, the men must live ; and here as else- 
Avhere the master who omits to pay once, will hardly find la- 
bourers in future. The matter would remedy itself elsewhere, 
and does it not do so here ? This of course is so, and it is not 
to be understood that labour as a rule is defrauded of its 
hire. But the relation of the master and the man admits of 
such fraud here much more frequently than in England. In 
England the labourer who did not get his wages on the Satur- 
day could not go on for the next Aveek. To him under such 
circumstances the world would be coming to an end. But in 
the Western States, the labourer does not live so completely 
from hand to mouth. He is rarely paid by the week, is accus- 
tomed to give some credit, and till hard pressed by bad circum- 
stances generally has something by him. They do save money, 
and are thus fattened up to a state which admits of victimiza- 
tion. I cannot owe money to the little village cobbler who 
mends my shoes, because he demands and receives his payment 
when his job is done. But to my friend in Kegent Street I ex- 
tend my custom on a diflerent system ; and when I make my 
start for continental life, I have with him a matter of unsettled 
business to a considerable extent. The American labourer is 
in the condition of the Regent Street boot-maker ; — excepting 
in this respect, that he gives his credit under compulsion. 
" But does not the law set him right ? Is there no law against 
debtors ?" The laws against debtors are plain enough as they 
are written down, but seem to be anything but plain when 
called into action. They are perfectly understQod, and opera- 
tions are carried on with the express purpose of evading them. 
If you proceed against a man, you find that his property is in 
the hands of some one else. You work in fact for Jones who 
lives in the next street to you; but when you quarrel with 
Jones about your wages, you find that according to law you 
have been working for Smith in another State. In all coun- 
tries such dodges are probably practicable. But men will or 
will not have recourse to such dodges according to the light 
in which they are regarded by the community. In the West- 
ern States such dodges do not appear to be regarded as dis- 
graceful. " It behoves a frontier man to be smart, sir." 



FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 123 

Honesty is the best policy. Tliat is a doctrine which has 
been widely preached, and which has recommended itself to 
many minds as being one of absolute truth. It is not very en- 
nobling in its sentiment, seeing that it advocates a special vir- 
tue, not on the ground that that virtue is in itself a thing beau- 
tiful, but on account of the immediate reward which will be its 
consequence. Smith is enjoined not to cheat Jones, because he 
will, in the long run, make more money by dealing with Jones 
on the square. This is not teaching of the highest order ; but 
it is teaching well adapted to human circumstances, and has 
obtained for itself a wide credit. One is driven, however, to 
doubt whether even this teaching is not too high for the frontier 
man. Is it possible that a frontier man should be scrupulous 
and at the same time successful? Hitherto those who have al- 
lowed scruples to stand in their way have not succeeded ; and 
they who have succeeded and made for themselves great names 
— who have been the pioneers of civilization — have not allowed 
ideas of exact honesty to stand in their way. From General 
Jason down to General Fremont there have been men of great 
aspirations but of slight scruples. They have been ambitious 
of power and desirous of progress, but somewhat regardless 
how power and progress shall be attained. Clive and Warren 
Hastings were great frontier men, but we cannot imagine that 
they had ever realized the doctrine that honesty is the best 
policy. Cortez, and even Columbus, the prince of frontier men, 
are in the same category. The names of such heroes is legion. 
But with none of them has absolute honesty been a favourite 
virtue. "It behoves a frontier man to be smart, sir." Such, 
in that or other language, has been the prevailing idea. Such 
is the prevaiHng idea. And one feels driven to ask oneself 
whether such must not be the prevailing idea with those who 
leave the world and its rules behind them, and go forth with 
the resolve that the world and its rules shall follow them. 

Of filibustering, annexation, and polishing savages oiF the 
face of creation there has been a great deal, and who can deny 
that humanity has been the gainer? It seems to those who 
look widely back over history, that all such works have been 
carried on in obedience to God's laws. When Jacob by Re- 
becca's aid cheated his elder brother he was very smart ; but 
we cannot but suppose that a better race was by this smart- 
ness put in possession of the patriarchal sceptre. Esau was 
polished off, and readers of Scripture wonder why heaven with 
its thunder did not open over the heads of Rebecca and her 
son. But Jacob with all his fraud was the chosen one. Per- 



124 NORTH AMERICA. 

haps the day may come when scrupulous honesty may be the 
best poHcy even on. the frontier. I can oiily say that hitherto 
that day seems to be as distant as ever. I do not pretend to 
solve the problem, but simply record my ojDinion that under 
circumstances as they still exist I should not willingly select 
a frontier life for my children. 

I have said that all great frontier men have been unscrupu- 
lous. There is, however, an exception in history which may 
perhaps serve to prove the rule. The Puritans who colonized 
New England were frontier men, and were, I think, in general 
scrupulously honest. They had their faults. They were stern, 
austere men, tyrannical at the backbone when power came in 
their way, — as are all pioneers ; — hard upon vices for which 
they who made the laws had themselves no minds ; but they 
were not dishonest. 

At Milwaukee I went up to see the Wisconsin volunteers, 
who were then encamped on open ground in the close vicinity 
of the town. Of Wisconsin I had heard before, — and have 
heard the same opinion repeated since, — that it was more back- 
ward in its volunteering than its neighbour States in the West. 
Wisconsin has 760,000 inhabitants, and its tenth thousand of 
volunteers was not then made up ; whereas Indiana with less 
than double its number had already sent out thirty-six thou- 
sand. Iowa, with a hundred thousand less of inhabitants, had 
then made up fifteen thousand. But nevertheless to me it 
seemed that Wisconsin was quite alive to its presumed duty 
in that respect. Wisconsin with its three quarters of a million 
of people is as large as England. Every acre of it may be 
made productive, but as yet it is not half cleared. Of such a 
country its young men are its heart's blood. Ten thousand 
men fit to bear arms carried away from such a land to the hor- 
rors of civil war is a sight as full of sadness as any on which 
the eye can rest. Ah me, when will they return, and with what 
altered hopes ! It is, I fear, easier to turn the sickle into the 
sword, than to recast the sword back again into the sickle ! 

We found a completed regiment at Wisconsin consisting en- 
tirely of Germans. A thousand Germans had been collected 
in that State and brought together in one regiment, and I was 
informed by an ofiicer on the ground that there are many Ger- 
mans in sundry other of the Wisconsin regiments. It may be 
well to mention here that the number of Germans through*^! 
these western States is very great. Their number and well- 
being were to me astonishing. That they form a great yov- 
tion of the population of New York, making the German quar- 



FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. 125 

ter of that city the third largest German town in the world, I 
have long known ; but I had no previous idea of their expan- 
sion w^estward. In Detroit nearly every third shop bore a 
German name, and the same remark w^as to be made at Mil- 
waukee ; — and on all hands I heard praises of their morals, of 
their thrift, and of their new patriotism. I was continually 
told how far they exceeded the Irish settlers. To me in all 
parts of the world an Irishman is dear. When handled ten- 
derly he becomes a creature most loveable. But wdth all my 
judgment in the Irishman's favour, and with my prejudices 
leaning the same way, I feel myself bound to state what I 
heard and what I saw as to the Germans. 

But this regiment of Germans, and another not completed 
regiment, called from the State generally, were as yet without 
arms, accoutrements, or clothing. There w^as the raw mate- 
rial of the regiment, but there was nothing else. Winter was 
coming on, — winter in which the mercury is commonly 20 de- 
grees below zero, — and the men were in tents w^ith no provi- 
sion against the cold. These tents held each two men, and 
were just large enough for two to lie. The canvas of which 
they were made seemed to me to be thin, but was I think al- 
ways double. At this camp there was a house in which the 
men took their meals, but I visited other camps in wdaich there 
Avas no such accommodation. I saw the German regiment 
called to its supper by tuck of drum, and the men inarched in 
gallantly, armed each with a knife and spoon. I managed to 
make my way in at the door after them, and can testify to the 
excellence of the i^rovisions of which their supper consisted. 
A poor diet never enters into any combination of circum- 
stances contemplated by an American. Let him be where he 
will, animal food is, with him, the first necessary of life, and he 
is always provided accordingly. As to those Wisconsin men 
whom I saw, it was probable that they might be marched off, 
down south to Washington, or to the doubtful glories of the 
western campaign under Fremont before the winter com- 
menced. The same ipight have been said of any special regi- 
ment. But taking the whole mass of men who were collected 
imder canvas at the end of the autumn of 1861, and who were 
so collected without arms or military clothing, and without 
protection from the weather, it did seem that the task taken 
in hand by the Commissariat of the Northern army Avas one 
not devoid of difficulty. 

The view from Milwaukee over Lake Michigan is very pleas- 
ing. One looks upon a vast expanse of water to which the 



126 NOETH AMERICA. 

eye finds no bounds, and therefore there are none of the com- 
mon attributes of lake beauty ; but the colour of the lake is 
bright, and within a walk of the city the traveller comes to the 
bluffs or low round-topped hills from which he can look down 
upon the shores. These bluffs form the beauty of Wisconsin 
and Minnesota, and relieve the eye after the flat level of Michi- 
gan. Kound Detroit there is no rising ground, and therefore, 
perhaps, it is that Detroit is uninteresting. 

I have said that those who are called on to labour in these 
States have their own hardships, and I have endeavoured to 
explain what are the sufferings to which the town labourer is 
subject. To escape from this is the labourer's great ambition, 
and his mode of doing so consists almost universally in the 
purchase of land. He saves up money in order that he may 
buy a section of an allotment, and thus become his own mas- 
ter. All his savings are made with a view to this independ- 
ence. Seated on his own land he will have to work probably 
harder than ever, but he will work for himself. No taskmaster 
can then stand over him and wound his pride with harsh words. 
He will be his own master ; will eat the food which he himself 
has grown, and live in the cabin which his own hands have 
built. This is the object of his life ; and to secure this position 
he is content to work late and early and to undergo the indig- 
nities of previous servitude. The Government price for land 
is about five shillings an acre — one dollar and a quarter — and 
the settler may get it for this price if he be contented to take 
it not only untouched as regards clearing, but also far removed 
from any completed road. The trafiic in these lands has been 
the great speculating business of Avestern men. Five or six 
years ago, when the rage for such purchases was at its height, 
land was becoming a scarce article in the market ! Individu- 
als or companies bought it up with the object of reselling it at 
a profit ; and many no doubt did make money. Railway com- 
panies were, in fact, companies combined for the purchase of 
land. They purchased land, looking to increase the value of it 
five-fold by the opening of a railroad. It may easily be under- 
stood that a railway, which could not be in itself remunerative, 
might in this way become a lucrative speculation. No settler 
could dare to place himself absolutely at a distance from any 
thoroughfare. At first the margins of nature's highways, the 
navigable rivers and lakes, were cleared. But as the railway 
system grew and expanded itself, it became manifest that lands 
might be rendered quickly available which were not so circum- 
stanced by nature. A company which had purchased an enor- 



FROM NIAGARA TO TUE MISSISSIPPI. 127 

mous territory from the United States Government at five shil- 
lings an acre might well repay itself all the cost of a railway 
through that territory, even though the receipts of the railway 
should do no more than maintain the current expenses. It is 
in this way that the thousands of miles of American railroads 
have been opened ; and here again must be seen the immense 
advantages which the States as a new country have enjoyed. 
With us the purchase of valuable land for railways, together 
with the legal expenses which those compulsory purchases en- 
tailed, have been so great that with all our traffic railways are 
not remunerative. But in the States the railways have created 
the value of the land. The States have been able to begin at 
the right end, and to arrange that the districts which are ben- 
efited shall themselves pay for the benefit they receive. 

The Government price of land is 125 cents, or about five 
shillings an acre; and even this need not be paid at once if the 
settler purchase directly from the Government. He must be- 
gin by making certain improvements on the selected land, — 
clearing and cultivating some small portion, building a hut, and 
probably sinking a well. When this has been done, — when he 
has thus given a pledge of his intentions by depositing on the 
land the value of a certain amount of labour, he cannot be re- 
moved. He cannot be removed for a term of years, and then 
if he pays the price of the land it becomes his own with an in- 
defeasible title. Many such settlements are made on the pur- 
chase of Avarrants for land. Soldiers returning from the Mex- 
ican wars were donated with warrants for land, — the amount 
being 160 acres, or the quarter of a section. The localities of 
such lands were not specified, but the privilege granted was 
that of occupying any quarter-section not hitherto tenanted. 
It will of course be understood that lands favourably situated 
would be tenanted. Those contiguous to railways were of 
course so occupied, seeing that the fines were not made till the 
lands were in the hands of the companies. It may therefore be 
xmderstood of what nature would be the traffic in these war- 
rants. The owner of a single warrant might find it of no value 
to him. To go back utterly into the woods, away from riv- 
er or road, and there to commence with 160 acres of forest, or 
even of prairie, would be a hopeless task even to an American 
settler. Some mode of transport for his produce must be found 
before his produce would be of value, — before indeed he could 
find the means of living. But a company buying up a large 
aggregate of such warrants would possess the means of making 
such allotments valuable and of reselling them at greatly in- 
creased prices. 



128 NORTH AMERICA. 

The primary settler, therefore,— who, however, will not usu- 
ally have been the primary owner, — goes to work upon his land 
amidst all the wildness of nature. He levels and burns the first 
trees, and raises his first crop of corn amidst stumps still stand- 
ing four or five feet above the soil ; but he does not do so till 
some mode of conveyance has been found for him. So much I 
have said hoping to explain the mode in which the frontier 
speculator paves the way for the frontier agriculturist. But 
the permanent farmer very generally comes on the land as the 
third owner. The first settler is a rough fellow, and seems to 
be so wedded to his rough life that he leaves his land after his 
first wild work is done, and goes again further ofi" to some un- 
touched allotment. He finds that he can sell his improvements 
at a profitable rate and takes the price. He is a preparer of 
farms rather than a farmer. He has no love for the soil which 
his hand has first turned. He regards it merely as an invest- 
ment ; and when things about him are beginning to wear an 
aspect of comfort, — when his property has become valuable, he 
sells it, packs up his wife and little ones, and goes again into 
the woods. The western American has no love for his own 
soil, or his own house. The matter with him is simply one of 
dollars. To keep a farm which he could sell at an advantage 
from any feeling of afiection, — from what we should call an as- 
sociation of ideas, — would be to him as ridiculous as the keep- 
ing of a family pig would be in an English farmer's establish- 
ment. The pig is a part of the farmer's stock in trade, and 
must go the Avay of all pigs. And so is it with house and land 
in the life of the frontier man in the western States. 

But yet this man has his romance, his high poetic feeling, and 
above all his manly dignity. Visit him, and you will find him 
without coat or waistcoat, unshorn, in ragged blue trousers and 
old flannel shirt, too often bearing on his lantern jaws the signs 
of ague and sickness ; but he will stand upright before you and 
speak to you with all the ease of a lettered gentleman in his 
own library. All the odious incivility of the republican serv- 
ant has been banished. He is his own master, standing on his 
own threshold, and finds no need to assert his equality by rude- 
ness. He is delighted to see you, and bids you sit down on 
his battered bench without dreaming of any such apology as an 
EngHsh cottier ofiers to a LadyBountiful when she calls. He 
has worked out his independence, and shows it in every easy 
movement of his body. He tells you of it unconsciously in ev- 
ery tone of his voice. You will always find in his cabin some 
newspaper, some book, some token of advance in education. 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 129 

When he questions you about the old country he astonishes 
you by the extent of his knowledge. I defy you not to feel 
that he is superior to the race from whence he has sprung in 
England or in Ireland. To me I confess that the manliness of 
such a man is very charming. He is dirty and perhaps squalid. 
His children are sick and he is without comforts. His wife is 
pale, and you think you see shortness of life written in the 
faces of all the family. But over and above it all there is an 
independence w^hich sits gracefully on their shoulders, and 
teaches you at the first glance that the man has a right to as- 
sume himself to be your equal. It is for this position that the 
labourer works, bearing hard w^ords and the indignity of tyran- 
ny, — suffering also too often the dishonest ill-usage which his 
superior power enables the master to inflict. 

'' I have lived very rough,'' I heard a poor woman say, whose 
husband had ill-used and deserted her. " I have known what 
it is -to be hungry and cold, and to work hard till my bones 
have ached. I only wish that I might have the same chance 
again. If I could have ten acres cleared two miles away from 
any living being, I could be happy with my children. I find a 
kind of comfort when I am at work from daybreak to sundown, 
and know that it is all my own." I believe that life in the 
backwoods has an allurement to those who have been used to 
it, that dwellers in cities can hardly comprehend. 

From Milwaukee we went across Wisconsin and reached the 
Mississippi at La Crosse. From hence, according to agree- 
ment, Ave were to start by steamer at once up the river. But 
we were delayed again, as had happened to us before on Lake 
Michigan at Grand Haven. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 

It had been promised to us that we should start from La 
Crosse by the river steamer immediately on our arrival there ; 
but on reaching La Crosse we found that the vessel destined 
to take us up the river had not yet come down. She was bring- 
ing a regiment from Minnesota, and undel* such circumstances 
some pardon might be extended to irregularities. This plea 
was made by one of the boat clerks in a very humble tone, and 
was fully accepted by us. ThK wonder was that at such a pe- 
riod all means of public conveyance were not put absolutely 
out of gear. One might surmise that when regiments were 

F 2 



130 NOKTH AMEEICA. 

constantly being moved for the purposes of civil war, when the 
whole North had but the one object of collecting together a 
sufficient number of men to crush the South, ordinary travel- 
ling for ordinary purposes would be difficult, slow, and subject 
to sudden stoppages. Such, however, was not the case either 
in the northern or western States. The trains ran much as 
usual, and those connected with the boats and railways were 
just as anxious as ever to secure passengers. The boat clerk 
at La Crosse apologised amply for the delay, and we sat our- 
selves down with patience to await the arrival of the second 
Minnesota regiment on its way to Washington. 

During the four hours that we were kept waiting we were 
harboured on board a small steamer, and at about eleven the 
terribly harsh whistle that is made by the Mississippi boats in- 
formed us that the regiment was arriving. It came up to the 
quay in two steamers, 750 being brought in that which was to 
take us back, and 250 in a smaller one. The moon was very 
bright, and great flaming torches were lit on the vessel's side, 
so that all the operations of the men were visible. The two 
steamers had run close up, thrusting us away from the quay in 
their passage, but doing it so gently that we did not even feel 
the motion. These large boats — and their size may be under- 
stood from the fact that one of them had just brought down 
750 men, — are moved so easily and so gently that they come 
gliding in among each other without hesitation and without 
pause. On English waters we do not willingly run ships 
against each other ; and when we do so unwillingly, they bump 
and crush and crash upon each other, and timbers fly while 
men are swearing. But here there was neither crashing nor 
swearing, and the boats noiselessly pressed against each other 
as though they were cased in muslin and crinoline. 

I got out upon the quay and stood close by the plank, watch- 
ing each man as he left the vessel and walked across towards 
the railway. Those whom I had previously seen in tents were 
not equipped, but these men were in uniform and each bore his 
musket. Taking them all together they were as fine a set of 
men as I ever saw collected. No man could doubt on seeing 
them that they bore on their countenances the signs of higher 
breeding and better education than Avould be seen in a thou- 
sand men enlisted in England. I do not mean to argue from 
this that Americans are better than English. I do not mean 
to argue here that they are even better educated. My asser- 
tion goes to show that the men generally were taken from a 
higher level in the community than that which fills our own 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 131 

ranks. It was a matter of regret to me, here and on many 
subsequent occasions, to see men bound for three years to serve 
as common soldiers, who were so manifestly fitted for a better 
and more useful life. To me it is always a source of sorrow to 
see a man enlisted. I feel that the individual recruit is doing 
badly with himself — carrying himself and the strength and in- 
telligence which belongs to him to a bad market. I know that 
there must be soldiers ; but as to every sejoarate soldier I re- 
gret that he should be one of them. And the higher is the 
class from which such soldiers are drawn, the greater the intel- 
hgence of the men so to be employed, the deeper with me is 
that feeling of regret. But this strikes one much less in an old 
country than in a country that is new. In the old countries 
population is thick, and food sometimes scarce. Men can be 
spared, and any employment may be serviceable, even though 
that employment be in itself so unproductive as that of fight- 
ing battles or preparing for them. But in the western States 
of America every arm that can guide a plough is of incalcula- 
ble value. Minnesota was admitted as a State about three 
years before this time, and its whole population is not much 
above 150,000. Of this number perhaps 40,000 may be work- 
ing men. And now this infant State with its huge territory 
and scanty population is called upon to send its heart's blood 
out to the war. 

And it has sent its heart's best blood. Forth they came — 
fine, stalwart, well-grown fellows, looking to my eye as though 
they had as yet but faintly recognised the necessary severity 
of military discipline. To them hitherto the war had seemed 
to be an arena on which each might do something for his coun- 
try, which that country would recognise. To themselves as 
yet — and to me also — they were a band of heroes, to be reduced 
by the compressing i^ower of military discipline to the lower 
level, but more necessary position of a regiment of soldiers. 
Ah me ! how terrible to them has been the breaking up of that 
delusion ! When a poor yokel in England is enlisted with a 
shilling and a promise of unlimited beer and glory, one pities 
and if possible would save him. But with him the mode of life 
to which he goes may not be much inferior to that he leaves. 
It may be that for him soldiering is the best trade possible in 
his circumstances. It may keep him from the hen-roosts, and 
perhaps from his neighbours' pantries ; and discipline may be 
good for him. Population is thick with us, and there are many 
Avhom it may be well to collect and make available under the 
strictest surveillance. But of these men whom I saw entering 



132 NORTH AMEEICA. 

on their career upon the banks of the Mississippi, many were 
fathers of families, many were owners of lands, many were edu- 
cated men capable of high aspirations, — all were serviceable 
members of their State. There were j^robably there not three 
or four of whom it would be well that the State should be rid. 
As soldiers fit, or capable of being made fit for the duties they 
had undertaken, I could find but one fault with them. Their 
average age was too high. There were men among them with 
grizzled beards, and many Avho had counted thirty, thirty-five^ 
and forty years. They had, I believe, devoted themselves with 
a true spirit of patriotism. No doubt each had some ulterior 
hope as to himself, — as has every mortal patriot. Regulus 
when he returned hopeless to Carthage, trusted that some 
Horace would tell his story. Each of these men from Min- 
nesota looked probably forward to his reward ; but the reward 
desired was of a high class. 

The first great misery to be endured by these regiments will 
be the military lesson of obedience which they must learn be- 
fore they can be of any service. It always seemed to me when 
I came near them that they had not as yet recognized the nec- 
essary austerity of an ofliicer's duty. Their idea of a captain 
was the stage idea of a leader of dramatic banditti, a man to 
be followed and obeyed as a leader, but to be obeyed with that 
free and easy obedience which is accorded to the reigning chief 
of the forty thieves. " Wa'll Captain," I have heard a private 
say to his officer, as he sat on one seat in a railway-car with his 
feet upon the back of another. And the captain has looked as 
though he did not like it. The captain did not like it, but the 
poor private was being fast carried to that destiny which he 
would like still less. From the first I have had faith in the 
northern army ; but from the first I have felt that the sufiTering 
to be endured by these free and independent volunteers would 
be very great. A man to be available as a private soldier must 
be compressed and belted in till he be a machine. 

As soon as the men had left the vessel we walked over the 
side of it and took possession. "I am afraid your cabin won't 
be ready for a quarter of an hour," said the clerk. " Such a 
body of men as that will leave some dirt after them." I as- 
sured him of course that our expectations under such circum- 
stances were very limited, and that I was fully aware that the 
boat and the boat's company were taken up with matters of 
greater moment than the carriage of ordinary passengers. But 
to this he demurred altogether. "The regiments were very 
little to them, but occasioned much trouble. Everything, how- 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 133 

ever, should be square in fifteen minutes." At the expiration 
of the time named the key of our state-room was given to us, 
and we found the appurtenances as clean as though no soldier 
had ever put his foot upon the vessel. 

From La Crosse to St. Paul, the distance up the river is 
something over 200 miles, and from St. Paul down to Dubuque, 
in Iowa, to which we went on our return, the distance is 450 
miles. We w^ere therefore for a considerable time on board 
these boats; more so than such a journey may generally make 
necessary, as we were delayed at first by the soldiers, and af- 
terwards by accidents, such as the breaking of a paddle-wheel, 
and other causes to which navigation on the Upper Mississippi 
seems to be liable. On the whole we slept on board four nights, 
and lived on board as many days. I cannot say that the life 
was comfortable, though I do not know that it could be made 
more so by any care on the part of the boat-owners. My first 
complaint would be against the great heat of the cabins. The 
Americans as a rule live in an atmosphere which is almost un- 
bearable by an Englishman. To this cause, I am convinced, is 
to be attributed their thin faces, their pale skins, their unen- 
ergetic temperament, — unenergetic as regards physical motion, 
— and their early old age. The winters are long and cold in 
America, and mechanical ingenuity is far extended. These two 
facts together have created a system of stoves, hot-air pipes, 
steam chambers, and heating apparatus, so extensive that from 
autumn till the end of spring all inhabited rooms are filled with 
the atmosphere of a hot oven. An Englishman fancies that he 
is to be baked, and for a while finds it almost impossible to 
exist in the air prepared for him. How the heat is engendered 
on board the river steamers I do not know, but it is engendered 
to so great a degree that the sitting-cabins are unendurable. 
The patient is therefore driven out at all hours into the out- 
side balconies of the boat, or on to the top roof, — for it is a roof 
rather than a deck, — and there as he passes through the air at 
the rate of twenty miles an hour, finds himself chilled to the 
very bones. That is my first complaint. But as the boats are 
made for Americans, and as Americans like hot air, I do not 
put it forward with any idea that a change ought to be efiected. 
My second complaint is equally unreasonable, and is quite as 
incapable of a remedy as the first. Nine-tenths of the travellers 
carry children with them. They are not tourists engaged on 
pleasure excursions, but men and women intent on the business 
of life. They are moving up and down, looking for fortune, 
and in search of new homes. Of course they carry with them 



134 NOKTH AMERICA. 

all their household gods. Do not let any critic say that I grudge 
these young travellers their right to locomotion. Neither their 
right to locomotion is grudged by me, nor any of those privi- 
leges which are accorded in America to the rising generation. 
The habits of their country and the choice of their parents give 
to them full dominion over all hours and over all places, and it 
would ill become a foreigner to make such habits and such 
choice a ground of serious complaint. But nevertheless the 
uncontrolled energies of twenty children round one's legs do 
not convey comfort or happiness, when the passing events are 
producing noise and storm rather than peace and sunshine. I 
must protest that American babies are an unhappy race. They 
eat and drink just as they please; they are never punished; 
they are never banished, snubbed, and kept in the back ground 
as children are kept with us ; and yet they are wretched and 
uncomfortable. My heart has bled for them as I have heard 
them squalling by the hour together in agonies of discontent 
and dyspepsia. Can it be, I wonder, that children are happier 
when they are made to obey orders and are sent to bed at six 
o'clock, than when allowed to regulate their own conduct; 
that bread and milk is more favorable to laughter and soft 
childish ways than beef-steaks and pickles three times a day ; 
that an occasional whipping, even, will conduce to rosy cheeks ? 
It is an idea which I should never dare to broach to an Amer- 
ican mother ; but I must confess that after my travels on the 
western continent my opinions have a tendency in that direc- 
tion. Beef-steaks and pickles certainly produce smart little 
men and w^omen. Let that be taken for granted. But rosy 
laughter and winning childish w^ays are, I fancy, the produce 
of bread and milk. But there was a third reason why travel- 
ling on these boats was not as pleasant as I had expected. I 
could not get my fellow-travellers to talk to me. It must be 
understood that our fellow-travellers were not generally of that 
class which we Englishmen, in our pride, designate as gentle- 
men and ladies. They were people, as I have said, in search 
of new homes and new fortunes. But I protest that as such 
they would have been in those parts much more agreeable as 
companions to me that any gentlemen or any ladies, if only 
they would have talked to me. I do not accuse them of any 
incivility. If addressed, they answered me. If apphcation was 
made by me for any special information, trouble was taken to 
give it me. But I found no aptitude, no wish for conversation ; 
nay, even a disinclination to converse. In the western States 
I do not think that I was ever addressed first by an American 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 135 

sitting next to me at table. Indeed I never held any conversa- 
tion at a public table in the West. I have sat in the same room 
with men for hours, and have not had a word si:)oken to me. 
I have done my very best to break through this ice, and have 
always failed. A Avestern American man is not a talking man. 
He will sit for l^purs over a stove with his cigar in his mouth, 
and his hat over his eyes, chewing the cud of reflection. A 
dozen will sit together in the same way, and there shall not be 
a dozen words spoken between them in an hour. With the 
women one's chance of conversation is still worse. It seemed 
as though the cares of the world had been too much for them, 
and that all talking excepting as to business, — demands for in- 
stance on the servants for pickles for their children, — had gone 
by the board. They were generally hard, dry, and melancholy. 
I am speaking of course of aged females, — from five and twenty 
perhaps to thirty, who had long since given up the amusements 
and levities of life. I very soon abandoned any attempt at 
drawing a word from these ancient mothers of families ; but 
not the less did I ponder in my mind over the circumstances 
of their lives. Had things gone with them so sadly, was the 
struggle for independence so hard, that all the softness of exist- 
ence had been trodden out of them ? In the cities too it was 
much the same. It seemed to me that a future mother of a 
family in those parts had left all laughter behind her when she 
put out her finger for the wedding ring. 

For these reasons I must say that life on board these steam- 
boats was not as pleasant as I had hoped to find it, but for 
our discomfort in this respect we found great atonement in the 
scenery through which we passed. I protest that of all the 
river scenery that I know, that of the Upper Mississippi is by 
far the finest and the most continued. One thinks of course 
of the Rhine ; but, according to my idea of beauty, the Rhine 
is nothing to the Upper Mississippi. For miles upon miles, for 
hundreds of miles, the course of the river runs through low 
hills, which are there called bluffs. These bluffs rise in every 
imaginable form, looking sometimes like large straggling un- 
wieldy castles, and then throwing themselves into sloping 
lawns which stretch back away from the river till the eye is 
lost in their twists and turnings. Landscape beauty, as I take 
it, consists mainly in four attributes : in water, in broken land, 
in scattered timber, — timber scattered as opposed to continu- 
ous forest timber, — and in the accident of colour. In all these 
particulars the banks of the Upper Mississippi can hardly be 
beaten. There are no high mountains; but high mountains 



136 NORTH AMERICA. 

themselves are grand rather than beautiful. There are no high 
mountains, but there is a succession of hills which group them- 
selves for ever without monotony. It is perhaps the ever-va- 
riegated forms of these bluffs which chiefly constitute the won- 
derful loveliness of this river. The idea constantly occurs that 
some point on every hillside would form the most charming 
site ever yet chosen for a noble residence. I have passed up 
and down rivers clothed to the edge with continuous forest. 
This at first is grand enough, but the eye and feeling soon be- 
come weary. Here the trees are scattered so that the eye 
passes through them, and ever and again a long lawn sweeps 
back into the country, and up the steep side of a hill, making 
the traveller long to stay there and linger through the oaks, 
and cUmb the bluffs, and lie about on the bold but easy sum- 
mits. The -boat, however, steams quickly up against the cur- 
rent, and the happy valleys are left behind, one quickly after 
another. The river is very various in its breadth, and is con- 
stantly divided by islands. It is never so broad that the beauty 
of the banks is lost in the distance or injured by it. It is rap- 
id, but has not the beautifully bright colour of some European 
rivers, — of the Rhine for instance, and the Rhone. But what 
is wanting in the colour of the water is more than compensated 
by the wonderful hues and lustre of the shores. We visited 
the river in October, and I must presume that they who seek 
it solely for the sake of scenery should go there in that month. 
It was not only that the foliage of the trees was bright with 
every imaginable colour, but that the grass was bronzed, and 
that the rocks were golden. And this beauty did not last only 
for a while and then cease. On the Rhine there are lovely 
spots and special morsels of scenery with which the traveller 
becomes duly enraptured. But on the Upper Mississippi there 
are no special morsels. The position of the sun in the heavens 
will, as it always does, make much difference in the degree of 
beauty. The hour before and the half-hour after sunset are 
always the loveliest for such scenes. But of the shores them- 
selves one may declare that they are lovely throughout those 
400 miles which run immediately south from St. Paul. 

About half-way between La Crosse and St. Paul we came 
upon Lake Pepin, and continued our course up the lake for ^ 
perhaps fifty or sixty miles. This expanse of water is narrow 
for a lake, and by those who know the lower courses of great 
rivers, would hardly be dignified by that name. But, never- 
theless, the breadth here lessens the beauty. There are the 
same bluffs, the same scattered woodlands, and the same col- 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 137 

ours. But they are either at a distance, or else they are to be 
seen on one side only. The more that I see of the beauty of 
scenery, and the more I consider its elements, the stronger be- 
comes my conviction that size has but little to do with it, and 
rather detracts from it than adds to it. Distance gives one of 
its greatest charms, but it does so by concealing rather than 
displaying an expanse of surface. The beauty of distance arises 
from the romance, — the feeling of mystery which it creates. It 
is like the beauty of woman which allures the more the more that 
it is veiled. But open, uncovered land and water, mountains 
which simply rise to great heights with long unbroken slopes, 
wide expanses of lake, and forests which are monotonous in 
their continued thickness, are never lovely to me. A land- 
scape should always be partly veiled, and display only half its 
charms. 

To my taste the finest stretch of the river was that imme- 
diately above Lake Pepin ; but then, at this point, we had all 
the glory of the setting sun. It Avas like fairy land, so bright 
were the golden hues, so fantastic were the shapes of the hills, 
so broken and twisted the course of the waters ! But the noisy 
steamer v\ ent groaning up the narrow passages with almost 
unabated speed, and left the fairy land behind all too quickly. 
Then the bell would ring for tea, and the children with the 
beef-steaks, the pickled onions, and the light fixings would all 
come over again. The care-laden mothers would tuck the bibs 
under the chins of their tyrant children, and some embryo sen- 
ator of four years old would listen with concentrated attention, 
while the negro servant recapitulated to him the delicacies of 
the supper-table, in order that he might make his choice with 
due consideration. " Beef-steak," the embryo four-year old 
senator would lisp, " and stewed potato, and buttered toast, 
and corn cake, and cofifee, — and — and — and; mother, mind 
you get me the pickles." 

St. Paul enjoys the double privilege of being the commercial 
and political capital of Minnesota. The same is the case with 
Boston in Massachusetts, but I do not remember another in- 
stance in which it is so. It is built on the eastern bank of the 
Mississippi, though the bulk of the State lies to the west of 
the river. It is noticeable as the spot up to which the river is 
navigable. Immediately above St. Paul there are narrow rap- 
ids up which no boat can pass, l^orth of this, continuous nav- 
igation does not go ; but from St. Paul down to New Orleans, 
and the Gulf of Mexico, it is uninterrupted. The distance to 
St. Louis in Missouri, a town built below the confluence of the 



138 NOKTU AMERICA. 

three rivers, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, is 900 miles; 
and then the navigable waters down to the gulf wash a south- 
ern country of still greater extent. No river on the face of the 
globe forms a highway for the produce of so wide an extent 
of agricultural land. The Mississippi with its tributaries car- 
ried to market, before the war, the produce of Wisconsin, Min- 
nesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This 
country is larger than England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, 
Belgium, France, Germany and Spain together, and is undoubt- 
edly composed of much more fertile land. The States named 
comprise the great centre valley of the continent, and are the 
farming lands and garden grounds of the western world. He 
who has not seen corn on the ground in Illinois or Minnesota, 
does not know to what extent the fertility of land may go, or 
how great may be the weight of cereal crops. And for all this 
the Mississippi was the high road to market. When the crop 
of 1861 was garnered this high road was stopped by the war. 
What suffering this entailed on the South, I will not here stop 
to say, but on the West the effect was terrible. Corn was in 
such plenty, Indian corn that is or maize, that it was not worth 
the farmer's while to prepare it for market. When I Avas in 
Illinois the second quality of Indian corn when shelled was not 
worth more than from eight to ten cents a bushel. But the 
shelling and preparation are laborious, and in some instances 
it was found better to burn it for fuel than to sell it. Respect- 
ing the export of corn from the West, I must say a further 
word or two in the next chapter; but it seemed to be indis- 
pensable that I should point out here how great to the United 
States is the need of the Mississippi. Nor is it for corn and 
wheat only that its waters are needed. Timber, lead, iron, 
coal, pork, all find, or should find, their exit to the world at 
large by this road. There are towns on it, and on its tribu- 
taries, already holding more than one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants. The number of Cincinnati exceeds that, as 
also does the number of St. Louis. Under these circumstances 
it is not wonderful that the States should wish to keep in their 
own hands the navigation of this river. 

It is not wonderful. But it will not, I think, be admitted by 
the politicians of the world, that the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi need be closed against the West, even though the southern 
States should succeed in raising themselves to the power and 
dignity of a separate nationality. If the waters of the Danube 
be not open to Austria, it is through the fault of Austria. That 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 139 

the subject will be one of trouble no man can doubt; and of 
course it would be well for the North to avoid that, or any oth- 
er trouble. In the meantime the importance of this right of 
way must be admitted ; and it must be admitted also that what- 
ever may be the ultimate resolve of the North, it will be very 
difficult to reconcile the West to a divided dominion of the 
Mississippi. 

St. Paul contains about fourteen thousand inhabitants, and, 
like all other American towns, is spread over a surface of ground 
adapted to the accommodation of a very extended population. 
As it is belted on one side by the river, and on the other by the 
bluffs which accompany the course of the river, the site is pret- 
ty, and almost romantic. Here also we found a great hotel, — 
a huge square building, such as we in England might i^erhaps 
place near to a railway terminus, in such a city as Glasgow or 
Manchester ; but on which no living Englishman would expend 
his money in a town even five- times as big again as St. Paul. 
Everything was sufficiently good, and much more than sufficient- 
ly plentiful. The Avhole thing went on exactly as hotels do 
down in Massachusetts, or the State of New York. Look at 
the map, and see where St. Paul is. Its distance from all known 
civilization, — all civilization that has succeeded in obtaining ac- 
quaintance with the world at large, is very great. Even Amer- 
ican travellers do not go up there in great numbers, excepting 
those who intend to settle there. A stray sportsman or two, 
American or English, as the case may be, makes his way into 
Minnesota for the sake of shooting, and pushes on up through 
St. Paul to the Red River. Some few adventurous spirits visit 
the Indian settlements, and pass over into the unsettled regions 
of Dacotah and Washington territory. But there is no throng 
of travelling. Nevertheless, an hotel has been built there capa- 
ble of holding three hundred guests, and other hotels exist in 
the neighbourhood, one of which is even larger than that at St. 
Paul. Who can come to them, and create even a hope that 
such an enterprise may be remunerative ? In America it is sel- 
dom more than hope, for one always hears that such enterprises 
fail. 

When I was there the war was in hand, and it was hardly to 
be expected that any hotel should succeed. The landlord told 
me that he held it at the present time for a very low rent, and 
that he could just manage to keep it open without loss. The 
war which hindered people from travelling, and in that way in- 
jured the innkeepers, also hindered people from housekeeping, 
and reduced them to the necessity of boarding out, — ^by which 



140 NOETH AMERICA. 

the innkeepers were, of course, benefited. At St. Paul I found 
that the majority of the guests were inhabitants of the town, 
boarding at the hotel, and thus dispensing with the cares of a 
separate establishment. I do not know what was charged for 
such accommodation at St. Paul, but I have come across large 
houses at which a single man could get all that he required for 
a dollar a day. Now Americans are great consumers, especially 
at hotels, and all that a man requires includes three hot meals 
with a choice from about two dozen dishes at each. 

From St. Paul there are two waterfalls to be seen, which we, 
of course, Adsited. We crossed the river at Fort Snelling, a 
ricketty, ill-conditioned building, standing at the confluence of 
the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, built there to repress the 
Indians. It is, I take it, very necessary, especially at the pres- 
ent moment, as the Indians seem to require repressing. They 
have learned that the attention of the federal government has 
been called to the war, and have become bold in consequence. 
When I was at St. Paul I heard of a party of Englishmen who 
had been robbed of everything they possessed, and was in- 
formed that the farmers in the distant parts of the State were 
by no means secure. The Indians are more to be pitied than 
the farmers. They are turning against enemies who will nei- 
ther forgive nor forget any injuries done. When the war is 
over they will be improved, and polished, and annexed, till no 
Indian will hold an acre of land in Minnesota. At present Fort 
Snelling is the nucleus of a recruiting camp. On the point be- 
tween the bluffs of the two rivers there is a plain, immediately 
in front of the fort, and there we saw the newly-joined Minne- 
sota recruits going through their first military exercises. They 
were in detachments of twenties, and were rude enough at their 
goose step. The matter which struck me most in looking at 
them was the difference of condition which I observed in the 
men. There were the country lads, fresh from the farms, such 
as we see following the recruiting sergeant through English 
towns ; but there were also men in black coats and black trou- 
sers, with thin boots, and trimmed beards, — beards which had 
been trimmed till very lately ; and some of them with beards 
which showed that they were no longer young. It was inex- 
pressibly melancholy to see such men as these twisting and 
turning about at the corporal's word, each handling some stick 
in his hand in lieu of weapon. Of course they were more awk- 
ward than the boys, even though they were twice more assid- 
uous in their efforts. Of course they were sad, and wretched. 
I saw men there that were very wretched, — all but heart-broken, 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 141 

if one might judge from their faces. They should not have 
been there handling sticks, and moving their unaccustomed legs 
in cramped paces. They were as razors, for which no better 
purpose could be found than the cutting of blocks. When such 
attempts are made the block is not cut, but the razor is spoilt. 
Most unfit for the commencement of a soldier's life were some 
that I saw there, but I do not doubt that they had been at- 
tracted to the work by the one idea of doing something for 
their country in its trouble. 

From Fort Snelliug we went on to the Falls of Minnehaha. 
Minnehaha, laughing water. Such I believe is the interpreta- 
tion. The name in this case is more imposing than the fall. 
It is a pretty little cascade, and might do for a picnic in fine 
weather, but it is not a waterfall of which a man can make 
much when found so far away from home. Going on from 
Minnehaha Ave came to Minneapolis, at which place there is a 
fine suspension bridge across the river, just above the falls of 
St. Anthony and leadmg to the town of that name. Till I got 
there I could hardly believe that in these days there should be 
a living village called MinneaiDolis by living men. I presume I 
should describe it as a town, for it has a municipality, and a 
post-ofiice, and, of course, a large hotel. The interest of the 
place however is in the saw-mills. On the opposite side of the 
water, at St. Anthony, is another very large hotel, — and also a 
smaller one. The smaller one may be about the size of the 
first-class hotels at Cheltenham or Leamington. They were 
both closed, and there seemed to be but little prospect that ei- 
ther would be opened till the war should be over. The saw- 
mills, however, were at full work, and to my eyes were ex- 
tremely picturesque. I had been told that the beauty of the 
falls had been destroyed by the mills. Indeed all who had 
spoken to me about St. Anthony had said so. But I did not 
agree with them. Here, as at Ottawa, the charm in fact con- 
sists, not in an uninterrupted shoot of water, but in a succession 
of rapids over a bed of broken rocks. Among these rocks logs 
of loose timber are caught, which have escaped from their prop- 
er courses, and here they lie, heaped up in some places, and 
constructing themselves into bridges in others, till the freshets 
of the spring carry them off. The timber is generally brought 
down in logs to St. Anthony, is sawn there, and then sent down 
the Mississippi in large rafts. These rafts on other rivers are 
I think generally made of unsawn timber. Such logs as have 
escaped in the manner above described are recognized on their 
passage down the river by their marks, and are made up sepa- 



142 NOKTH AMERICA. 

rately, the original owners receiving the value, — or not receiv- 
ing it as the case may be. "There is quite a trade going on 
with the loose lumber," my informant told me. And from his 
tone I was led to suppose that he regarded the trade as suffi- 
ciently lucrative if not peculiarly honest. 

There is very much in the mode of life adopted by the set- 
tlers in these regions which creates admiration. The people 
are all intelligent. They are energetic and speculative, con- 
ceiving grand ideas, and carrying them out almost with the 
rapidity of magic. A suspension bridge half a mile long is 
erected, while in England we should be fastening together a 
few planks for a foot passage. Progress, mental as well as 
material, is the demand of the people generally. Everybody 
understands everything, and everybody intends sooner or later 
to do everything. All this is very grand ; — but then there is a 
terrible drawback. One hears on every side of intelligence, but 
one hears also on every side of dishonesty. Talk to whom you 
will, of whom you will, and you will hear some tale of success- 
ful or unsuccessful swindhng. It seems to be the recognized 
rule of commerce in the Far West that men shall go into the 
world's markets prepared to cheat and to be cheated. It may 
be said that as long as this is acknowledged and understood on 
all sides, no harm will be done. It is equally fair for all. When 
I was a child there used to be certain games at which it was 
agreed in beginning either that there should be cheating or that 
there should not. It may be said that out there in the western 
States, men agree to play the cheating game; and that the 
cheating game has more of interest in it than the other. Un- 
fortunately, however, they who agree to play this game on a 
large scale, do not keep outsiders altogether out of the play- 
ground. Indeed outsiders become very welcome to them ; — 
and then it is not pleasant to hear the tone in which such out- 
siders speak of the peculiarities of the sport to which they have 
been introduced. When a beginner in trade finds himself fur- 
nished with a barrel of wooden nutmegs, the joke is not so good 
to him as to the experienced merchant who supplies him. This 
dealing in wooden nutmegs, this seUing of things which do not 
exist, and buying of goods for which no price is ever to be giv- 
en, is an institution which is much honored in the West. We 
call it swindhng ; — and so do they. But it seemed to me that 
in the western States the word hardly seemed to leave the 
same impress on the mind that it does elsewhere. 

On our return down the river we passed La Crosse, at which 
we had embarked, and went down as far as Dubuque in Iowa. 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 143 

On our way down we came to grief and broke one of our pad- 
dle-wheels to pieces. We had no special accident. We struck 
against nothing above or below Avater. But the wheel went to 
pieces, and we lay-to on the river side for the greater part of a 
day while the necessary repairs were being made. Delay in 
travelling is usually an annoyance, because it causes the unset- 
tlement of a settled purpose. But the loss of the day did us no 
harm, and our accident had happened at a very pretty spot. I 
climbed up to the top of the nearest bluif, and walked back till 
I came to the open country, and also went up and down the 
river banks, visiting the cabins of two settlers who live there 
by supplying wood to the river steamers. One of these was 
close to the spot at which we were lying ; and yet though 
most of our passengers came on shore, I was the only one who 
spoke to the inmates of the cabin. These j^eople must live 
there almost in desolation from one year's end to another. 
Once in a fortnight or so they go up to a market town in their 
small boats, but beyond that they can have little intercourse 
with their fellow-creatures. Nevertheless none of these dwell- 
ers by the river side came out to speak to the men and women 
who were lounging about from eleven in the morning till four 
in the afternoon; nor did one of the passengers except myself 
knock at the door or enter the cabin, or exchange a word with 
those who lived there. 

I spoke to the master of the house, whom I met outside, and 
he at once asked me to come in and sit down. I found his 
father there and his mother, his wife, his brother, and two 
young children. The wife, who was cooking, was a very j^ret- 
ty, pale young woman, who, however, could have circulated 
round her stove more conveniently had her crinoline been of 
less dimensions. She bade me welcome very prettily, and went 
on with her cooking, talking the while, as though she were in 
the habit of entertaining guests in that way daily. The old 
woman sat in a corner knitting — as old women always do. 
The old man lounged with a grandchild on his knee, and the 
master of the house threw himself on the floor while the other 
child crawled over him. There was no stiflhess or uneasiness 
in their manners, nor was there any thing approaching to that 
republican roughness which so often operates upon a poor, 
well-intending Englishman like a slap on the cheek. I sat 
there for about an hour, and when I had discussed with them 
English politics and the bearing of English politics upon the 
American war, they told me of their own affairs. Food was 
very plenty, but life was very hard. Take the year through 



144 NORTH AMERICA. 

each man could not earn above half a dollar a day by cutting 
wood. This, however, they owned, did not take up all their 
time. Working on favourable wood on favourable days they 
could each earn two dollars a day; but these favourable cir- 
cumstances did not come together very often. They did not 
deal with the boats themselves, and the profits were eaten up 
by the middleman. He, the middleman, had a good thing of 
it, because he could cheat the captains of the boats in the meas- 
urement of the wood. The chopper was obliged to supply a 
genuine cord of logs, — true measure. But the man who took 
it off in the barge to the steamer could so pack it that fifteen 
true cords would make twenty-two false cords. "It cuts up 
into a fine trade, you see, sir," said the young man, as he 
stroked back the little girl's hair from her forehead. " But the 
captains of course must find it out," said I. This he acknowl- 
edged, but argued that the captains on this account insisted on 
buying the wood so much cheaper, and that the loss all came 
upon the chopper. I tried to teach him that the remedy lay in 
his own hands, and the three men listened to me quite patient- 
ly while I explained to them how they should carry on their 
own trade. But the young father had the last word. " I guess 
we don't get above the fifty cents a day any way." He knew 
at least where the shoe pinched him. He was a handsome, 
manly, noble-looking fellow, tall and thin, with black hair and 
bright eyes. But he had the hollow look about his jaws, and 
so had his wife, and so had his brother. They all owned to 
fever and ague. They had a touch of it most years, and some- 
times pretty sharply. " It was a coarse place to live in," the 
old woman said, " but there was no one to meddle with them, 
and she guessed that it suited." They had books and news- 
papers, tidy delf, and clean glass upon their shelves, and un- 
doubtedly provisions in plenty. Whether fever and ague year- 
ly, and cords of wood stretched from fifteen to twenty-two are 
more than a set-off for these good things, I will leave every one 
to decide according to his own taste. 

In another cabin I found women and children only, and one 
of the children was in the last stage of illness. But neverthe- 
less the woman of the house seemed glad to see me, and talked 
cheerfully as long as I would remain. She inquired what had 
happened to the vessel, but it had never occurred to her to go 
out and see. Her cabin was neat and well furnished, and there 
also I saw newspapers and Harper's everlasting magazine. She 
said it was a coarse, desolate place for living, but that she could 
raise almost any thing in her garden. 

I could not then understand, nor can I now understand, why 



CERES A3IERICANA. 145 

none of the numerous passengers out of the boat should have 
entered those cabins except myself; and why the inmates of 
the cabins should not have come out to speak to any one. Had 
they been surly, morose people, made silent by the specialities 
of their life, it would have been explicable ; but they were de- 
lighted to talk and to listen. The fact, I take it, is, that the 
people are all harsh to each other. They do not care to go out 
of their way to speak to any one unless something is to be 
gained. They say that two Englishmen meeting in the desert 
would not speak unless they were introduced. The further I 
travel, the less true do I find this of Englishmen, and the more 
true of other people. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CEEES AilEEICANA. 

We stopped at the Julien House, Dubuque. Dubuque is a 
city in Iowa on the western shore of the Mississippi, and as the 
names both of the town and of the hotel sounded French in 
my ears, I asked for an explanation. I was then told that Ju- 
lien Dubuque, a Canadian Frenchman, had been buried on one 
of the bluffs of the river within the precincts of the present 
town, that he had been the first white settler in Iowa, and had 
been the only man who had ever prevailed upon the Indians to 
work. Among them he had become a great "Medicine," and 
seems for a while to have had absolute power over them. He 
died I think in 1800, and was buried on one of the hills over 
the river : " He was a bold bad man," my informant told me, 
" and committed every sin under heaven. But he made the 
Indians work." 

Lead mines are the glory of Dubuque, and very large sums 
of money have been made from them. I was taken out to see 
one of them, and to go down it ; but we found, not altogether 
to my sorrow, that the works had been stopped on account of 
the water. "No effort has been made in any of these mines to 
subdue the water, nor has steam been applied to the working 
of them. The lodes have been so rich with lead that the specu- 
lators have been content to take out the metal that was easily 
reached, and to go off in search of fresh ground when disturbed 
by water. "And are wages here paid pretty punctually?" I 
asked. " Well; a man has to be smart, you know." And then 
my friend went on to acknowledge that it would be better for 
the country if smartness were not so essential. 

G 



146 NORTH AMERICA. 

Iowa has a population of 674,(K)0 souls, aud in October 1861 
had already mustered eighteen regiments of 1000 men each. 
Such a population would give probably T70,000 men capable 
of bearing arms, and therefore the number of soldiers sent had 
already amounted to more than a decimation of the available 
strength of the State. When we were at Dubuque nothing 
was talked of but the army. It seemed that mines, coal-pits, 
and corn-fields, were all of no account in comparison with the 
war. How many regiments could be squeezed out of the State, 
was the one question which filled all minds ; and the general 
desire was that such regiments should be sent to the Western 
army, to swell the triumph which was still expected for General 
Fremont, and to assist in sweeping slavery out into the Gulf 
of Mexico. The patriotism of the West has been quite as keen 
as that of the North, and has produced results as memorable; 
but it has sprung from a different source, and been conducted 
and animated by a different sentiment. National greatness and 
support of law have been the ideas of the North ; national great- 
ness and the abolition of slavery have been those of the West. 
How they are to agree as to terms when between them they 
have crushed the South, — that is the difl[iculty. 

At Dubuque in Iowa, I ate the best apple that I ever encoun- 
tered. I make that statement with the purpose of doing justice 
to the Americans on a matter which is to them one of consid- 
erable importance. Americans as a rule do not believe in En- 
glish apples. They declare that there are none, and receive ac- 
counts of Devonshire cyder with manifest incredulity. " But 
at any rate there are no apples in England equal to ours." That 
is an assertion to which, an Englishman is called upon to give 
an absolute assent ; and I hereby give it. Apples so excellent 
as some which were given to us at Dubuque, I have never 
eaten in England. There is a great jealousy respecting all the 
fruits of the earth. *'Your peaches are fine to look at," was 
said to me, " but they have no flavour." This was the asser- 
tion of a lady, and I made no answer. My idea had been that 
American peaches had no flavour; that French peaches had 
none; that those of Italy had none; that little as there might 
be of which England could boast with truth, she might at any 
rate boast of her peaches without fear of contradiction. In- 
deed my idea had been that good peaches were to be got in 
England only. I am beginning to doubt whether my belief on 
the matter has not been the product of insular ignorance, and 
idolatrous self-worship. It may be that a peach should be a 
combination of an apple and a turnip. *' My great objection to 



CERES AMERICANA. 147 

your country, sir," said another, " is that you have got no veg- 
etables." Had he told me that we had got no seaboard, or no 
coals, he would not have surprised me more. No vegetables 
in England ! I could not restrain myself altogether, and re- 
plied by a confession "that we 'raised' no squash." Squash is 
the pulp of the pumpkin, and is much used in the States, both 
as a vegetable and for pies. No vegetables in England ! Did 
my surprise arise from the insular ignorance and idolatrous self- 
worship of a Britisher, or was my American friend labouring 
under a delusion. Is Covent Garden well supplied with vege- 
tables, or is it not? Do we cultivate our kitchen gardens with 
success, or am I under a delusion on that subject? Do I 
dream, or is it true that out of my own little patches at home 
I have enough for all domestic purposes of peas, beans, brocoli, 
cauliflower, celery, beet-root, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, 
seakale, asparagus, french beans, artichokes, vegetable marrow, 
cucumber, tomatoes, endive, lettuce, as well as herbs of many 
kinds, cabbages throughout the year, and potatoes ? ISTo veg- 
etables ! Had the gentleman told me that England did not 
suit him because we had nothing but vegetables, I should have 
been less surprised. 

From Dubuque, on the western shore of the river, we passed 
over to Dunleath in IHinois, and went on from thence by rail- 
way to Dixon. I was induced to visit this not very flourishing 
town by a desire to see the rolling prairie of Illinois, and to 
learn by eyesight something of the crops of corn or Indian 
maize which are produced upon the land. Had that gentleman 
told me that we knew nothing of producing corn in England he 
would have been nearer the mark ; for of corn in the profusion 
in which it is grown here we do not know much. Better land 
than the prairies of Illinois for cereal crops the world's surface 
probably cannot show. And here there has been no necessity 
for the long previous labour of banishing the forest. Enormous 
prairies stretch across the State, into which the plough can be 
put at once. The earth is rich with the vegetation of thousands 
of years, and the farmer's return is given to him without delay. 
The land bursts with its own produce, and the plenty is such 
that it creates wasteful carelessness in the gathering of the crop. 
It is not worth a man's while to handle less than large quanti- 
ties. Up in Minnesota I had been grieved by the loose manner 
in which wheat was treated. I have seen bags of it upset, and 
left upon the ground. The labour of collecting it was more than 
it was worth. There wheat is the chief crop, and as the lands 
become cleared and cultivation spreads itself, the amount com- 



148 NORTH AMERICA. 

ing down the Mississippi will be increased almost to infinity. 
The price of wheat in Europe will soon depend, not upon the 
value of the wheat in the country which grows it, but on the 
power and cheapness of the modes which may exist for trans- 
porting it. I have not been able to obtain the exact prices with 
reference to the carriage of wheat from St. Paul, the capital of 
Minnesota, to Liverpool, but I have done so as regards Indian 
corn from the State of Illinois. The following statement will 
show what proportion the value of the article at the place of 
its growth bears to the co^t of the carriage ; and it shows also 
how enormous an effect on the price of corn in England would 
follow any serious decrease in the cost of carriage. 

A bushel of Indian corn at Bloomington in Illinois cost in 

October, 1861 10 cents. 

Freight to Chicago 10 " 

Storeage 2 *' 

Freight from Chicago to Buffalo 22 " 

Elevating, and canal freight to New York 19 " 

Transfer in New York and insurance 3 '* 

Ocean freight 23 '' 

Cost of a bushel of Indian corn at Liverpool 89 cents. 

Thus corn which in Liverpool costs 3s. lOd, has been sold by 
the farmer who produced it for 5c?. ! It is probable that no 
great reduction can be expected in the cost of ocean transit ; 
but it will be seen by the above figures that out of the Liver- 
pool price of 3s. lOd. or 89 cents, considerably more than half 
is paid for carriage across the United States. All or nearly all 
this transit is by water, and there can, I think, be no doubt but 
that a few years will see it reduced by fifty per cent. In Oc- 
tober last the Mississippi was closed, the railways had not roll- 
ing stock sufficient for their work, the crops of the two last 
years had been excessive, and there existed the necessity of 
sending out the corn before the internal navigation had been 
closed by frost. The parties who had the transit in their hands 
put their heads together and Avere able to demand any prices 
that they pleased. It will be seen that the cost of carrying a 
bushel of corn from Chicago to Bufialo, by the lakes, was with- 
in one cent of the cost of bringing it from New York to Liver- 
pool. These temporary causes for high prices of transit will 
cease, a more perfect system of competition between the rail- 
ways and the water transit will be organized, and the result 
must necessarily be both an increase of price to the producer 
and a decrease of price to the consumer. It certainly seems 
that the produce of cereal crops in the valleys of the Mississip- 



( 



CEKES AMERICANA. 149 

pi and its tributaries, increases at a faster rate than population 
increases. Wheat and corn are sown by the thousand acres in 
a piece. I heard of one farmer who had 10,000 acres of corn. 
Thirty years ago grain and flour were sent westward out of the 
State of New York to supply the wants of those who had em- 
igrated into the prairies, and now we find that it will be the 
destiny of those prairies to feed the universe. Chicago is the 
main point of exportation north-westward from Illinois, and at 
the present time sends out from its granaries more cereal prod- 
uce than an y^ other town in the world. The bulk of this pass- 
es, in the shape of grain or flour, from Chicago to Bnftalo, which 
latter place is as it were a gateway leading from the lakes or big 
waters to the canals or small waters. I give below the amount 
of grain and flour in bushels received into Buffalo for transit in 
the month of October during four consecutive years. 

October, 1858 4,429,055 bushels. 

1859 5,523,448 

" 1860 6,500,864 *' 

" 1861 12,483,797 *' 

In 1860, from the opening to the close of navigation, 
30,837,632 bushels ot grain and flour passed through Buffalo. 
In 1861 the amount received up to the 31st of October, was 
51,969,142 bushels. As the navigation would be closed during 
the month of November, the above figures may be taken as 
representing not quite the whole amount transported for the 
year. It may be presumed the 52,000,000 of bushels, as quoted 
above, will swell itself to 60,000,000. I confess that to my 
own mind statistical amounts do not bring home any enduring 
idea. Fifty million bushels of corn and flour simply seems to 
mean a great deal. It is a powerful form of superlative, and 
soon vanishes away, as do other superlatives in this age of 
strong words. I was at Chicago and at Buffalo in October 
1861. I went down to the granaries, and climbed up into the 
elevators. I saw the wheat running in rivers from one vessel 
into another, and from the railroad vans up into the huge bins 
on the top stores of the warehouses ; — for these rivers of food 
run up hill as easily as they do down. I saw the corn meas- 
ured by the forty bushel measure with as much ease as we meas- 
ure an ounce of cheese, and with greater rapidity. I ascer- 
tained that the work went on, week day and Sunday, day and 
night incessantly ; rivers of wheat and rivers of maize ever run- 
ning. I saw the men bathed in corn as they distributed it in 
its flow. I saw bins by the score laden with wheat, in each 
of which bins there was space for a comfortable residence. I 



150 NORTH AMERICA. 

breathed the flour, and drank the flour, and felt myself to be 
enveloped in a world of breadstuff*. And then I believed, under- 
stood, and brought it home to myself as a fact, that here in the 
corn lands of Michigan, and amidst the bluffs of Wisconsin, 
and on the high table plains of Minnesota, and the prairies of 
Illinois, had God prepared the food for the increasing millions 
of the Eastern world, as also for the coming millions of the 
Western. 

I do not find many minds constituted like my own, and 
therefore I venture to publish the above figures. I believe 
them to be true in the main, and they will show, if credited, 
that the increase during the last four years has gone on with 
more than fabulous rapidity. For myself I own that those 
figures would have done nothing unless I had visited the spot 
myself. A man cannot, perhaps, count up the results of such 
a work by a quick glance of his eye, nor communicate with 
precision to another the conviction which his own short experi- 
ence has made so strong within himself; — but to himself seeing 
is believing. To me it was so at Chicago and at Buffalo. I 
began then to know what it was for a country to overflow with 
milk and honey, to burst with its own fruits, and be smothered 
by its own riches. From St. Paul down the Mississippi by the 
shores of Wisconsin and Iowa, — by the ports on Lake Pepin, — 
by La Crosse, from which one railway runs eastward, — by 
Prairie du Chien the terminus of a second, — by Dunleath, 
Fulton, and Rock Island from whence three other lines run 
eastward, all through that wonderful State of Illinois — the 
farmers' glory, — along the ports of the great lakes, — through 
Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and further Pennsylvania, up to Buf- 
falo, the great gate of the western Ceres, the loud cry was this 
— " How shall we rid ourselves of our corn and wheat ?" The 
result has been the passage of 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuff's 
through that gate in one year ! Let those who are susceptible 
of statistics ponder that. For them who are not I can only give 
this advice : — Let them go to Buffalo next October, and look 
for themselves. 

In regarding the above figures and the increase shown be- 
tween the years 1860 and 1861, it must of course be borne in 
mind that during the latter autumn no corn or wheat was car- 
ried into the Southern States, and that none was exported from 
New Orleans or the mouth of the Mississippi. The States of 
Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have for some time past 
received much of their supplies from the north-western lands, 
and the cutting off" of this current of consumption has tended 



CEEES AMERICANA. 151 

to swell the amount of grain which has been forced into the 
narrow channel of Buffalo. There has been no southern exit 
allowed, and the southern appetite has been deprived of its 
food. But taking this item for all that it is worth, — or taking 
it, as it generally will be taken, for much more than it can be 
worth, — the result left will be materially the same. The grand 
markets to which the western States look and have looked are 
those of New England, New York, and Europe. Already corn 
and wheat are not the common crops of New England. Boston, 
and Hartford, and Lowell are fed from the great western States. 
The State of New York, which, thirty years ago, was famous 
chiefly for its cereal produce, is now fed from these States. New 
York city would be starved if it depended on its own State ; 
and it will soon be as true that England would be starved if it 
depended on itself It was but the other day that we were 
talking of free trade in corn as a thing desirable, but as yet 
doubtful; — but the other day that Lord Derby Avho may be 
Prime Minister to-morrow, and Mr. Disraeli who may be Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer to-morrow, were stoutly of opinion that 
the corn laws might be and should be maintained; — but the 
other day that the same opinion was held with confidence by 
Sir Robert Peel, who, however, when the day for the change 
came, was not ashamed to become the instrument used by the 
people for their repeal. Events in these days march so quickly 
that they leave men behind, and our dear old Protectionists at 
home will have grown sleek upon American flour before they 
have realized the fact that they are no longer fed from their 
own furrows. 

I have given figures merely as regards the trade of Buffalo ; 
but it must not be presumed that Buffalo is the only outlet 
from the great corn lands of Northern America. In the first 
place no grain of the produce of Canada finds its way to Buffalo. 
Its exit is by the St. Lawrence, or by the Grand Trunk Rail- 
way, as I have stated when speaking of Canada. And then 
there is the passage for large vessels from the Upper Lakes, 
Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, through the Wel- 
land Canal, into Lake Ontario, and out by the St. Lawrence. 
There is also the direct communication from Lake Erie, by 
the New York and Erie railway to New York. I have more 
especially alluded to the trade of Buftalo, because I have been 
enabled to obtain a reliable return of the quantity of grain and 
flour which passes through that town, and because Buffalo and 
Chicago are the two spots which are becoming most famous 
in the cereal history of the western States. 



152 NORTH AMERICA. 

Everybody has a map of North America. A reference to 
such a map will show the peculiar position of Chicago. It is 
^t the south or head of Lake Michigan, and to it converge rail- 
ways from "Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. At Chicago 
is found the nearest water carriage which can be obtained for 
the j^roduce of a large portion of these States. From Chicago 
there is direct water conveyance round through the lakes to 
Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie. At Milwaukee, higher up on 
the lake, certain lines of railway come in, joining the lake to 
the Upper Mississippi, and to the wheat-lands of Minnesota. 
Thence the passage is round by Detroit which is the port for 
the produce of the greatest part of Michigan, and still it all 
goes on towards Buffalo. Then on Lake Erie there are the 
ports of Toledo, Cleveland, and Erie. At the bottom of Lake 
Erie, there is this city of corn, at which the grain and flour is 
transhipped into the canal boats and into the railway cars 
for New York ; and there is also the Welland Canal, through 
which large vessels pass from the upper lakes, without tran- 
shipment of their cargo. 

I have said above that corn — meaning maize or Indian corn 
— was to be bought at Bloomington in Ilhnois for 10 cents or 
fivepence a bushel. I found this also to be the case at Dixon 
— and also that corn of inferior quality might be bought for 
fourpence ; but I found also that it was not worth the farmers 
while to shell it and sell it at such prices. I was assured that 
farmers were burning their Indian corn in some places, finding 
it more available to them as fuel, than it was for the market. 
The labour of detaching a bushel of corn from the hulls or cobs 
is considerable, as is also the task of carrying it to market. I 
have known potatoes in Ireland so cheap that they would not 
pay for digging and carrying away for purposes of sale. There 
was then a glut of potatoes in Ireland ; and in the same way 
there was in the autumn of 1861 a glut of corn in the western 
States. The best qualities would fetch a price, though still a 
low price ; but corn that was not of the best quality was all 
but worthless. It did for fuel, and was burnt. The fact was 
that the produce had re-created itself quicker than mankind 
had multiplied. The ingenuity of man had not worked quick 
enough for its disposal. The earth had given forth her increase 
so abundantly that the lap of created humanity could not 
stretch itself to hold it. At Dixon in 1861 corn cost fourpence 
a bushel. In Ireland in 1848, it was sold for a penny a pound, 
a pound being accounted sufiicient to sustain life for a day, — 
and we all felt that at that price food was brought into the 
country cheaper than it had ever been brought before. 



CEEES AMEEICANA. 153 

Dixon is not ^town of much apparent prosperity. It is one 
of those places at which great beginnings have been made, but 
as to which the deities presiding over new towns have not been 
propitious. Much of it has been burnt down, and more of it 
has never been built up. It had a straggling, ill-conditioned, 
uncommercial aspect, very different from the look of Detroit, 
Milwaukee, or St. Paul. There was, however, a great hotel 
there, as usual, and a grand bridge over the Rock River, a 
tributary of the Mississippi which runs by or through the town. 
I found that life might be maintained on very cheap terms at 
Dixon. To me as a passing traveller the charges at the hotel 
were, I take it, the same as elsewhere. But I learned from an 
inmate there that he with his wife and horse were fed and 
cared for, and attended for two dollars or 8s. 4f7. a day. This 
included a private sitting-room, coals, light, and all the wants 
of life — as my informant told me — excej^t tobacco and whiskey. 
Feeding at such a house means a succession of promiscuous hot 
meals as often as the digestion of the patient can face them. 
Now I do not know any locality where a man can keep him- 
self and his wife, with all material comforts, and the luxury of 
a horse and carriage, on cheaper terms than that. Whether 
or no it might be worth a man's while to live at all at such a 
place as Dixon is altogether another question. 

We went there because it is surrounded by the prairie, and 
out into the prairie we had ourselves driven. We found some 
difficulty in getting away from the corn, though we had select- 
ed this spot as one at which the open rolling prairie was spe- 
cially attainable. As long as I could see a corn-field or a tree 
I was not satisfied. Nor indeed was I satisfied at last. To 
have been thoroughly on the prairie and in the prairie I should 
have been a day's journey from tilled land. But I doubt wheth- 
er that could now be done in the State of Illinois. I got out 
into various patches and brought away specimens of corn ; — 
ears bearing sixteen rows of grain, with forty grains in each 
row ; each ear bearing a meal for a hungry man. 

At last we did find ourselves on the prairie, amidst the wav- 
ing grass, with the land rolling on before us in a succession of 
gentle sweeps, never rising so as to impede the vicAV, or ap- 
parently changing in its general level, — but yet without the 
monotony of flatness. We were on the prairie, but still I felt 
no satisfaction. It was private property — divided among hold- 
ers and pastured over by private cattle. Salisbury plain is as 
wild, and Dartmoor almost wilder. Deer they told me were 
to be had within reach of Dixon ; but for the buffalo one has to 

G2 



154 NOKTH AMERICA. 

go much further afield than Illinois. The farmer may rejoice 
in Illinois, but the hunter and the trapper must cross the big 
rivers and pass away into the western territories before he can 
find lands wild enough for his purposes. My visit to the corn- 
fields of Illinois was in its way successful ; but I felt as I turned 
my face eastward towards Chicago that I had no right to boast 
that I had as yet made acquaintance with a prairie. 

All minds were turned to the war, at Dixon as elsewhere. 
In Illinois the men boasted that as regards the war, they were 
the leading State of the Union. But the same boast was made 
in Indiana, and also in Massachusetts ; and probably in half the 
States of the North and West. They, the Illinoisians, call their 
country the war nest of the West. The population of the State 
is 1,700,000, and it had undertaken to furnish sixty volunteer 
regiments of 1000 men each. And let it be borne in mind that 
these regiments, when furnished, are really full, — absolutely 
containing the thousand men when they are sent away from 
the parent States. The number of souls above named will give 
420,000 working men, and if out of these 60,000 are sent to the 
war, the State, which is almost purely agricultural, will have 
given more than one man in eight. When I was in Illinois, 
over forty regiments had already been sent — forty-six if I re- 
member rightly, — and there existed no doubt whatever as to 
the remaining number. From the next State of Indiana, with 
a population of 1,350,000, giving something less than 350,000 
working men, thirty-six regiments had been sent. I fear that I 
am mentioning these numbers usque ad nauseam; but I wish 
to impress upon English readers the magnitude of the effort 
made by the States in mustering and equipping an army with- 
in six or seven months of the first acknowledgment that such 
an army would be necessary. The Americans have complained 
bitterly of the want of English sympathy, and I think they 
have been weak in making that complaint. But I would not 
wish that they should hereafter have the power of complaining 
of a want of English justice. There can be no doubt that a 
genuine feeling of patriotism was aroused throughout North 
and West, and that men rushed into the ranks actuated by that 
feeling — men for whom war and army life, a camp and fifteen 
dollars a month, would not of themselves have had any attrac- 
tion. It came to that, that young men were ashamed not to 
go into the army. This feeling of course produced coercion, 
and the movement was in that way tyrannical. There is no- 
thing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a 
democratic people. During the period of enlistment this tyr- 



CEKES AMERICANA. 155 

anny was very strong. But the existence of such a tyranny 
proves the passion and patriotism of the people. It got the 
better of the love of money, of the love of children, and of the 
love of progress. Wives who with their bairns were absolute- 
ly dependent on their husbands' labors, would wish their hus- 
bands to be at the war. Not to conduce, in some special way, 
towards the war, — to have neither father there, nor brother, 
nor son, — not to have lectured, or preached, or written for the 
war, — to have made no sacrifice for the war, to have had no 
special and individual interest in the war, was disgraceful. One 
sees at a glance the tyranny of all this in such a country as the 
States. One can understand how quickly adverse stories would 
spread themselves as to the opinion of any man who chose to 
remain tranquil at such a time. One shudders at the absolute 
absence of true liberty which such a passion throughout a demo- 
cratic country must engender. But he who has observed all 
this must acknowledge that that passion did exist. Dollars, 
children, progress, education, and jDolitical rivalry all gave way 
to the one strong national desire for the thrashing and crush- 
ing of those who had rebelled against the authority of the 
Stars and Stripes. 

When we were at Dixon they were getting up the Dement 
regiment. The attempt at the time did not seem to be pros- 
perous, and the few men who had been collected had about 
them a forlorn, ill-conditioned look. But then, as I was told, 
Dixon had already been decimated and re-decimated by former 
recruiting colonels. Colonel Dement, from whom the regiment 
was to be named, and whose military career was only now 
about to commence, had come late into the field, I did not 
afterAvards ascertain what had been his success, but I hardly 
doubt that he did ultimately scrape together his thousand men. 
" Why don't you go ?" I said to a burly Irishman who was 
driving me. " I'm not a sound man, yer honour," said the Irish- 
man. " I'm deficient in me liver." Taking the Irishmen, how- 
ever, throughout the Union, they had not been found deficient 
in any of the necessaries for a career of war. I do not think 
that any men have done better than the Irish in the American 
army. 

From Dixon we went to Chicago. Chicago is in many re- 
spects the most remarkable city among all the remarkable cit- 
ies of the Union. Its growth has been the fastest and its suc- 
cess the most assured. Twenty-five years ago there was no 
Chicago, and now it contains 120,000 inhabitants. Cincinnati 
on the Ohio, and St. Louis at the junction of the Missouri and 



156 NORTH AMERICA. 

Mississippi, are larger towns ; but they have not grown large 
so quickly, nor do they now promise so excessive a develop- 
ment of commerce. Chicago may be called the metropolis of 
American corn — the favourite city haunt of the American 
Ceres. The goddess seats herself there amidst the dust of her , 
full barns, and proclaims herself a goddess ruling over things 
political and philosophical as well as agricultural. Not fur- 
rows only are in her thoughts, but free trade also, and brother- 
ly love. And within her own bosom there is a boast that even 
yet she will be stronger than Mars. In Chicago there are great 
streets, and rows of houses fit to be the residences of a new 
Corn Exchange nobility. They look out on the wide lake which 
is now the highway for breadstuifs, and the merchant, as he 
shaves at his window, sees his rapid ventures as they pass 
away, one after the other, towards the East. 

I went over one great grain store in Chicago possessed by 
gentlemen of the name of Sturgess and Buckenham. It was a 
world in itself, — and the dustiest of all the worlds. It contain- 
ed, when I was there, half a million bushels of wheat — or a 
very great many, as I might say in other language. But it was 
not as a storehouse that this great building was so remarkable, 
but as a channel or a river course for the flooding freshets of 
corn. It is so built that both railway vans and vessels come 
immediately under its claws, as I may call the great trunks of 
the elevators. Oat of the railway vans the corn and wheat is 
clawed up into the building, and down similar trunks it is at 
once again poured out into the vessels. I shall be at Buffalo 
in a page or two, and then I will endeavour to explain more mi- 
nutely how this is done. At Chicago the corn is bought and 
does change hands, and much of it, therefore, is stored there 
for some space of time, — shorter or longer as the case may be. 
When I was at Chicago, the only limit to the rapidity of its 
transit was set by the amount of boat accommodation. There 
were not bottoms enough to take the corn away from Chicago, 
nor indeed on the railway was there a sufficiency of rolling 
stock or locomotive power to bring it into Chicago. As I said 
before, the country was bursting with its own produce and 
smothered in its own fruits. 

At Chicago the hotel was bigger than other hotels, and 
grander. There were pipes without end for cold water which 
ran hot, and for hot water which would not run at all. The 
post-office also was grander and bigger than other post-offices 
— though the postmaster confessed to me that that matter of 
the delivery of letters was one which could not be compassed. 



CERES AMERICANA. lo7 

Just at that moment it was being done as a private specula- 
tion ; but it did not pay, and would be discontinued. The 
theatre too was large, handsome, and convenient ; but on the 
night of my attendance it seemed to lack an audience. A 
good comic actor it did not lack, and I never laughed more 
heartily in my life. There was something wrong too just at 
that time — I could not make out what — in the constitution of 
Illinois, and the present moment had been selected for voting a 
new constitution. To us in England such a necessity would 
be considered a matter of importance, but it did not seem to 
be much thought of here. " Some slight alteration probably," 
I suggested. " No," said my informant — one of the judges of 
their courts — " it is to be a thorough radical change of the 
whole constitution. They are voting the delegates to-day." 
I went to see them vote the delegates ; but unfortunately got 
into a wrong place — by invitation — and was turned out, not 
without some slight tumult. I trust that the new constitution 
was carried through successfully. 

From these little details it may perhaps be understood how 
a town like Chicago goes on and prospers, in spite of all the 
drawbacks which are incident to newness. Men in those re- 
gions do not mind failures, and when they have failed, instant- 
ly begin again. They make their plans on a large scale, and 
they who come after them fill up what has been Avanting at 
first. Those taps of hot and cold water will be made to run 
by the next owner of the hotel, if not by the present owner. 
In another ten years the letters, I do not doubt, will all be de- 
livered. Long before that time the theatre will probably be 
full. The new constitution is no doubt already at work ; and 
if found deficient, another will succeed to it without any trouble 
to the State or any talk on the subject through the Union. 
Chicago was intended as a town of export for corn, and, there- 
fore, the corn stores have received the first attention. When 
I was there, they were in perfect working order. 

From Chicago we went on to Cleveland, a town in the State 
of Ohio on Lake Erie, again travelling by the sleeping cars. 
I found that these cars were universally mentioned with great 
horror and disgust by Americans of the upper class. They al- 
ways declared that they would not travel in them on any ac- 
count. Noise and dirt were the two objections. They are 
very noisy, but to us belonged the happy power of sleeping 
down noise. I invariably slept all through the night, and knew 
nothing about the noise. They are also very dirty, — extreme- 
ly dirty, — dirty so as to cause much annoyance. But then 



158 NORTH AMERICA. 

they are not quite so dirty as the day cars. If dirt is to be a 
bar against travelling in America, men and women must stay 
at home. For myself I don't much care for dirt, having a 
strong reliance on soap and water and scrubbing brushes. No 
one regards poisons who carries antidotes in which he has per- 
fect faith. 

Cleveland is another j^leasant town, — pleasant as Milwaukee 
and Portland. The streets are handsome, and are shaded by 
grand avenues of trees. One of these streets is over a mile in 
length, and throughout the whole of it, there are trees on each 
side — not little paltry trees as are to be seen on the boulevards 
of Paris, but spreading elms, — the beautiful American elm 
which not only spreads, but droops also, and makes more of its 
foliage than any other tree extant. And there is a square in 
Cleveland, well sized, as large as Russell Square I should say, 
with open paths across it, and containing one or two handsome 
buildings. I cannot but think that all men and women in Lon- 
don would be great gainers if the iron rails of the squares were 
thrown down, and the grassy enclosures thrown open to the 
public. Of course the edges of the turf would be worn, and 
the paths would not keep their exact shapes. But the prison 
look would be banished, and the sombre sadness of the squares 
would be relieved. 

I was particularly struck by the size and comfort of the 
houses at Cleveland. All down that street of which I have 
spoken, they do not stand continuously together, but are de- 
tached and separate ; houses which in England would require 
some fifteen or eighteen hundred a year for their maintenance. 
In the States, however, men commonly expend upon house rent 
a much greater proportion of their income than they do in En- 
gland. With us it is, I believe, thought that a man should cer- 
tainly not apportion more than a seventh of his spending in- 
come to his house rent, — some say not more than a tenth. But 
in many cities of the States a man is thought to live well with- 
in bounds if he" so expends a fourth. There can be no doubt 
as to Americans living in better houses than Englishmen, — 
making the comparison of course between men of equal in- 
comes. But the Englishman has many more incidental ex- 
penses than the American. He spends more on wine, on enter- 
tainments, on horses, and on amusements. He has a more nu- 
merous establishment, and keeps up the adjuncts and outskirts 
of his residence with a more finished neatness. 

These houses in Cleveland were very good, — as indeed they 
are in most Northern towns ; but some of them have been 



CERES AMERICANA. 150 

erected with an amount of bad taste that is almost incredible. 
It is not uncommon to see in front of a square brick house a 
wooden quasi-Greek portico, with a pediment and Ionic col- 
innns, equally high with the house itself Wooden columns 
with Greek capitals attached to the doorways, and wooden 
pediments over the Avindows, are very frequent. As a rule 
these are attached to houses which, without such ornamenta- 
tion, would be simple, unpretentious, square, roomy residences. 
An Ionic or Corinthian capital stuck on to a log of wood called 
a column, and then fixed promiscuously to the outside of an or- 
dinary house, is to my eye the vilest of architectural pretences. 
Little turrets are better than this ; or even brown battlements 
made of mortar. Except in America I do not remember to 
have seen these vicious bits of white timber, — timber painted 
white, — plastered on to the fronts and sides of red-brick houses. 

Again we went on by rail, — to Buffalo. I have travelled some 
thousands of miles by railway in the States, taking long jour- 
neys by night and longer journeys by day ; but I do not re- 
member that while doing so I ever made acquaintance with an 
American. To an American lady in a railway car I should no 
more think of speaking than I should to an unknown female in 
the next pew to me at a London church. It is hard to imder- 
stand from whence come the laws which govern societies in 
this respect ; but there are different laws in different societies,^ 
which soon obtain recognition for themselves. American la- 
dies are much given to talking, and are generally free from all 
mauvaise honte. They are collected in manner, well instruct- 
ed, and resolved to have their share of the social advantages of 
the world. In this phase of life they come out more strongly 
than English women. But on a railway journey, be it ever so 
long, they are never seen speaking to a stranger. English 
women, however, on English railways are generally willing to 
converse. They will do so if they be on a journey ; but will 
not open their mouths if they be simply passing backwards and 
forwards between their homes and some neighbouring town. 
We soon learn the rules on these subjects ; — but who make the 
rules ? If you cross the Atlantic with an American lady you 
invariably fall in love with her before the journey is over. 
Travel with the same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, 
and you will have written her down in your own mind in quite 
other language than that of love. 

And now for Bufialo, and the elevators. I trust I have 
made it understood that corn comes into Buffalo, not only 
from Chicago, of which I have spoken specially, but from all 



160 NORTH AMERICA. 

the ports round the lakes ; Racioe, Milwaukee, Granclhaven, 
Port Sarnia, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and many others. At 
these ports the produce is generally bought and sold ; but at 
Buffalo it is merely passed through a gateway. It is taken 
from vessels of a size fitted for the lakes, and placed in other 
vessels fitted for the canal. This is the Erie Canal, which con- 
nects the lakes with the Hudson River and Avith New York. 
The produce which passes through the Welland Canal — the ca- 
nal which connects Lake Erie and the upper lakes with Lake 
Ontario and the St. Lawrence — is not transhipped, seeing that 
the Welland Canal, which is less than thirty miles in length, 
gives a passage to vessels of 500 tons. As I have before said, 
60,000,000 bushels of breadstuff were thus pushed through 
Buffalo in the open months of the year 1861. These open 
months run from the middle of April to the middle of Novem- 
ber; but the busy period is that of the last two months, — the 
time that is which intervenes between the full ripening of the 
corn and the coming of the ice. 

An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced. 
In uncouthness of form it outdoes those obsolete old brutes 
who used to roam about the semi-aqueous world, and live a 
most uncomfortable life with their great hungering stomachs 
and huge unsatisfied maws. The elevator itself consists of a 
big moveable trunk, — moveable as is that of an elephant, but 
not pliable, and less graceful even than an elephant's. This is 
attached to a huge granary or barn ; but in order to give alti- 
tude within the barn for the necessary moving up and down 
of this trunk, — seeing that it cannot be curled gracefully to its 
purposes as the elephant's is curled, — there is an awkward box 
erected on the roof of the barn, giving some twenty feet of ad- 
ditional height, up into which the elevator can be thrust. It 
will be understood, then, that this big moveable trunk, the head 
of which, when it is at rest, is thrust up into the box on the 
roof, is made to slant down in an oblique direction from the 
building to the river. For the elevator is an amphibious insti- 
tution, and flourishes only on the banks of navigable waters. 
When its head is ensconced within its box, and the beast of 
prey is thus nearly hidden within the building, the unsuspicious 
vessel is brought up within reach of the creature's trunk, and 
down it comes, like a mosquito's proboscis, right through the 
deck, in at the open aperture of the hole, and so into the very 
vitals and bowels of the ship. When there, it goes to work 
upon its food with a greed and an avidity that is disgusting to 
a beholder of any taste or imagination. And now I must ex- 



CERES AMERICANA. 161 

plain the anatomical arrangement by which the elevator still 
devours and continues to devour, till the corn within its reach 
has all been swallowed, masticated, and digested. Its long 
trunk, as seen slanting down from out of the building across 
the wharf and into the ship, is a mere wooden pipe ; but this 
pipe is divided within. It has two departments ; and as the 
grain-bearing troughs pass up the one on a pliable band, they 
pass empty down the other. The system therefore is that of 
an ordinary dredging machine ; only that corn, and not mud is 
taken away, and that the buckets or troughs are hidden from 
sight. Below, within the stomach of the poor bark, three or 
four labourers are at work, helping to feed the elevator. They 
shovel the corn up towards its maw, so that at every swallow 
he should take in all that he can hold. Thus the troughs, as 
they ascend, are kept full, and when they reach the upper build- 
ing they empty themselves into a shoot, over which a porter 
stands guard, moderating the shoot by a door, which the weight 
of his finger can open and close. Through this doorway the 
corn runs into a measure, and is weighed. By measures of 
forty bushels each, the tale is kept. There stands the appara- 
tus, with the figures plainly marked, over against the porter's 
eye; and as the sum mounts nearly up to forty bushels he 
closes the door till the grains run thinly through, hardly a hand- 
ful at a time, so that the balance is exactly struck. Then the 
teller standing by marks down his figure, and the record is 
made. The exact porter touches the string of another door, 
and the forty bushels of corn run out at the bottom of the 
measure, disappear down another shoot, slanting also towards 
the water, and deposit themselves in the canal-boat. The trans- 
it of the bushels of corn from the larger vessel- to the smaller 
will have taken less than a minute, and the cost of that transit 
will have been — a farthing. 

But I have spoken of the rivers of wheat, and I must ex- 
plain what are those rivers. In the working of the elevator, 
which I have just attempted to describe, the two vessels were 
supposed to be lying at the same w^harf, on the same side of 
the building, in the same water, the smaller vessel inside the 
larger one. "When this is the case the corn runs direct from 
the weighing measure into the shoot that communicates Avith 
the canal boat. But there is not room or time for confining 
the work to one side of the building. There is water on both 
sides, and the corn or wheat is elevated on the one side, and 
re-shipped on the other. To efiect this the corn is carried 
across the breadth of the building ; but, nevertheless, it is 



162 NORTH AMERICA. 

never handled or moved in its direction on trucks or carriages 
requiring the use of men's muscles for its motion. Across the 
floor of the building are two gutters, or channels, and through 
these small troughs on a pliable band circulate very quickly. 
They which run one way, in one channel, are laden ; they 
which return by the other channel are empty. The corn pours 
itself into these, and they again pour it into the shoot which 
commands the other water. And thus rivers of corn are run- 
ning through these buildings night and day. The secret of all 
the motion and arrangement consists of course in the elevation. 
The corn is lifted up ; and when lifted up can move itself and 
arrange itself, and weigh itself, and load itself. 

I should have stated that all this wheat which passes through 
Buifalo comes loose, in bulk. Nothing is known of sacks or 
bags. To any spectator at Buifalo this becomes immediately 
a matter of course ; but this should be explained, as we in En- 
gland are not accustomed to see wheat travelling in this open, 
unguarded, and plebeian manner. Wheat with us is aristo- 
cratic, and travels always in its private carriage. 

Over and beyond the elevators there is nothing specially 
w^orthy of remark at Bufialo. It is a fine city, like all other 
American cities of its class. The streets are broad, the " blocks" 
are high, and cars on tramways run all day, and nearly all night 
as well, 

CHAPTER XII. 

BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 

We had now before us only two points of interest before we 
should reach New York, — the Falls of Trenton, and West Point 
on the Hudson River. We were too late in the year to get up to 
Lake George, which lies in the State of New York, north of Al- 
bany, and is, in fact, the southern continuation of Lake Champlain. 
Lake George, I know, is very lovely, and I would fain have seen 
it; but visitors to it must have some hotel accommodation, and 
the hotel was closed when we were near enough to visit it. I was 
in its close neighbourhood three years since in June ; but then the 
hotel was not yet opened. A visitor to Lake George must be very 
exact in his time. July and August are the months, — with per- 
haps the grace of a week in September. 

The hotel at Trenton was also closed, as I was told. But even 
if there were no hotel at Trenton, it can be visited without diffi- 
culty. It is within a carriage drive of Utica, and there is more- 



i 



BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 163 

over a direct railway from Utica, with a station at the Trenton 
Falls. Utica is a town on the line of railway from Buffalo to 
New York via Albany, and is like all the other towns we had vis- 
ited. There are broad streets, and avenues of trees, and large 
shops, and excellent houses. A general air of fat prosperity per- 
vades them all, and is strong at Utica as elsewhere, 

I remember to have been told thirty years ago that a traveller 
might go far and wide in search of the picturesque, without find- 
ing a spot more romantic in its loveliness than Trenton Falls. 
The name of the river is Canada Creek West; but as that is 
hardly euphonious, the course of the water which forms the falls 
has been called after the town or parish. This course is nearly 
two miles in length, and along the space of these two miles it is 
impossible to say where the greatest beauty exists. To see Tren- 
ton aright one must be careful not to have too much water. A 
sufficiency is no doubt desirable, and it may be that at the close of 
summer, before any of the autumnal rains have fallen, there may 
occasionally be an insufficiency. But if there be too much, the 
passage up the rocks along the river is impossible. The way on 
which the tourist should walk becomes the bed of the stream, and 
the great charm of the place cannot be enjoyed. That charm con- 
sists in descending into the ravine of the river, down amidst the 
rocks through which it has cut its channel, and in walking up the 
bed against the stream, in climbing the sides of the various falls, 
and sticking close to the river till an envious block is reached, 
which comes sheer down into the water, and prevents further 
progress. This is nearly two miles above the steps by which the 
descent is made ; and not a foot of this distance but is wildly 
beautiful. When the river is very low there is a pathway even 
beyond that block ; but when this is the case there can hardly be 
enough of water to make the fall satisfactory. 

There is no one special cataract at Trenton which is in itself 
either wonderful or pre-eminently beautiful. It is the position, 
form, colour, and rapidity of the river which give the charm. It 
runs through a deep ravine, at the bottom of which the water has 
cut for itself a channel through the rocks, the sides of which rise 
sometimes with the sharpness of the walls of a stone sarcophagus. 
They are rounded too towards the bed, as I have seen the bottom 
of a sarcophagus. Along the side of the right bank of the river 
there is a passage, which when the freshets come is altogether 
covered. This passage is sometimes very narrow, but in the nar- 
rowest parts an iron chain is affixed into the rock. It is slippery 
and wet, and it is well for ladies, when visiting the place to be 



164 NORTH AMERICA. 

provided with outside india-rubber shoes, which keep a hold upon 
the stone. If I remember rightly there are two actual cataracts, 
one not far above the steps by which the descent is made into the 
channel, and the other close under a summer-house, near to which 
the visitors reascend into the wood. But these cataracts, though 
by no means despicable as cataracts, leave comparatively a slight 
impression. They tumble down with sufficient violence, and the 
usual fantastic disposition of their forces ; but simply as cataracts, 
within a day's journey of Niagara, they would be nothing. Up 
beyond the summer-house the passage along the river can be con- 
tinued for another mile, but it is rough, and the climbing in some 
places rather difficult for ladies. Every man, however, who has 
the use of his legs, should do it, for the succession of rapids, and 
the twistings of the channels, and the forms of the rocks are as 
wild and beautiful as the imagination can desire. The banks of 
the river are closely wooded on each side ; and though this cir- 
cumstance does not at first seem to add much to the beauty, see- 
ing that the ravine is so deep that the absence of wood above 
would hardly be noticed, still there are broken clefts ever and anon 
through which the colours of the foliage show themselves, and 
straggling boughs and rough roots break through the rocks here 
and there, and add to the wildness and charm of the whole. 

The walk back from the summer-house through the wood is 
very lovely ; but it would be a disappointing walk to visitors who 
had been prevented by a flood in the river from coming up the 
channel, for it indicates plainly how requisite it is that the river 
should be seen from below and not from above. The best view of 
the larger fall itself is that seen from the wood. And here again 
I would point out that any male visitor should walk the channel 
of the river up and down. The descent is too slippery and diffi- 
cult for bipeds laden with petticoats. We found a small hotel 
open at Trenton, at which we got a comfortable dinner, and then 
in the evening were driven back to Utica. 

Albany is the capital of the State of New York, and our road 
from Trenton to West Point lay through that town ; but these 
political State capitals have no interest in themselves. The State 
legislature was not sitting, and we went on, merely remarking that 
the manner in which the railway cars are made to run backward 
and forward through the crowded streets of the town must cause 
a frequent loss of human life. One is led to suppose that children 
in Albany can hardly have a chance of coming to maturity. Such 
accidents do not become the subject of long-continued and strong 
comment in the States as they do with us ; but, nevertheless, I 



BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 165 

should have thought that such a state of things as we saw there 
would have given rise to some remark on the part of the philan- 
thropists. I cannot myself say that I saw anybody killed, and 
therefore should not be justified in making more than this passing 
remark on the subject. 

When first the Americans of the Northern States began to talk 
much of their country, their claims as to fine scenery were confined 
to Niagara and the Hudson River. Of Niagara, I have spoken, 
and all the world has acknowledged that no claim made on that 
head can be regarded as exaggerated. As to the Hudson, I am 
not prepared to say so much generally, though there is one spot 
upon it which cannot be beaten for sweetness. I have been up 
and down the Hudson by water, and confess that the entire river 
is pretty. But there is much of it that is not pre-eminently pretty 
among rivers. As a whole it cannot be named Avith the Upper 
Mississippi, with the Rhine, with the Moselle, or with the Upper 
Rhone. The palisades just out of New York are pretty, and the 
whole passage through the mountains from West Point up to Cats- 
kill and Hudson is interesting. But the glory of the Hudson is 
at West Point itself; and thither on this occasion we went direct 
by railway, and there we remained for two days. The Catskill 
mountains should be seen by a detour ofii'from the river. We did 
not visit them because, here again, the hotel was closed. I will 
leave them therefore for the new handbook which Mr. Murray will 
soon bring out. 

Of West Point there is something to be said independently of 
its scenery. It is the Sandhurst of the States. Here is their mil- 
itary school, from which officers are drafted to their regiments, 
and the tuition for military purposes is, I imagine, of a high order. 
It must, of course, be borne in mind that West Point, even as at 
present arranged, is fitted to the wants of the old army, and not to 
that of the army now required. It can go but a little way to sup- 
ply officers for 500,000 men ; but would do much towards sup- 
plying them for 40,000. At the time of my visit to West Point 
the regular army of the northern States had not even then swelled 
itself to the latter number. 

I found that there were 220 students at West Point, that about 
forty graduate every year, each of whom receives a commission in 
the army; that about 120 pupils are admitted every year; and 
that in the course of every year about eighty either resign, or are 
called upon to leave on account of some deficiency, or fail in their 
final examination. The result is simply this, that one third of 
those who enter succeeds, and that two thirds fail. The number 



166 NORTH AMERICA. 

of failures seemed to me to be terribly large, — so large as to give 
great ground of hesitation to a parent in accepting a nomination 
for the college. I especially inquired into the particulars of these 
dismissals and resignations, and was assured that the majority of 
them take place in the first year of the pupillage. It is soon seen 
whether or no a lad has the mental and physical capacities neces- 
sary for the education and future life required of him, and care is 
taken that those shall be removed early as to whom it may be de- 
termined that the necessary capacity is clearly w^anting. If this 
is done, — and I do not doubt it, — the evil is much mitigated. The 
effect otherwise would be very injurious. The lads remain till 
they are perhaps one and twenty, and have then acquired aptitudes 
for military life, but no other aptitudes. At that age the educa- 
tion cannot be commenced anew, and, moreover, at that age the 
disgrace of failure is very injurious. The period of education used 
to be five years, but has now been reduced to four. This was 
done in order that a double class might be graduated in 1861 to 
supply the wants of the war. I believe it is considered that but 
for such necessity as that, the fifth year of education can be ill 
spared. 

The discipline, to our English ideas, is very strict. In the first 
place no kind of beer, wine, or spirits is allowed at West Point. 
The law upon this point may be said to be very vehement, for it 
debars even the visitors at the hotel from the solace of a glass of 
beer. The hotel is within the bounds of the College, and as the 
lads might become purchasers at the bar, there is no bar allowed. 
Any breach of this law leads to instant expulsion ; or, I should say 
rather, any detection of such breach. The officer who showed us 
over the College assured me that the presence of a glass of wine in 
a young man's room would secure his exclusion, even though there 
should be no evidence that he had tasted it. He was very firm as 
to this ; but a little bird of West Point, whose information, though 
not official or probably accurate in words, seemed to me to be wor- 
thy of reliance in general, told me that eyes were wont to wink 
when such glasses of wine made themselves unnecessarily visible. 
Let us fancy an English mess of young men from seventeen to 
twenty-one, at which a mug of beer would be felony, and a glass 
of wine high treason ! But the whole management of the young 
with the Americans differs much from that in vogue with us. We 
do not require so much at so early an age, either in knowledge, in 
morals, or even in manliness. In America, if a lad be under con- 
trol, as at West Point, he is called upon for an amount of labour, 
and a degree of conduct, which would be considered quite trans- 



BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 167 

cendental and out of the question in England. But if he be not 
under control, if at the age of eighteen he be living at home, or be 
from his circumstances exempt from professorial power, he is a full- 
fledged man with his pipe apparatus and his bar acquaintances. 

And then I was told at West Point how needful and yet how 
painful it was that all should be removed who were in any way 
deficient in credit to the establishment. " Our rules are very ex- 
act," my informant told me ; " but the carrying out of our rules 
is a task not always very easy." As to this also I had already 
heard something from that little bird of West Point, but of course 
I wisely assented to my informant, remarking that discipline in 
such an establishment was essentially necessary. The little bird 
had told me that discipline at West Point had been rendered ter- 
ribly difficult by political interference. " A young man will be 
dismissed by the unanimous voice of the Board, and will be sent 
away. And then, after a week or two, he will be sent back, with 
an order from Washington, that another trial shall be given him. 
The lad will march back into the college with all the honours of 
a victory, and will be conscious of a triumph over the superintend- 
ent and his officers." "And is that common?"' I asked. "Not 
at the present moment," I was told. " But it was common before 
the war. AVhile Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Polk 
were Presidents, no officer or board of officers then at West Point 
was able to dismiss a lad whose father was a Southerner, and who 
had friends among the Government." 

Not only was this true of West Point, but the same allegation 
is true as to all matters of patronage throughout the United States. 
During the three or four last Presidencies, and I believe back to 
the time of Jackson, there has been an organized system of dis- 
honesty in the management of all beneficial places under the con- 
trol of the Government. I doubt whether any despotic court of 
Europe has been so corrupt in the distribution of places, — that is 
in the selection of public officers, — as has been the assemblage of 
statesmen at Washington. And this is the evil which the country 
is now expiating with its blood and treasure. It has allowed its 
knaves to stand in the high places ; and now it finds that knavish 
works have brought about evil results. But of this I shall be 
constrained to say something further hereafter. 

We went into all the schools of the College, and made ourselves 
fully aware that the amount of learning imparted was far above 
our comprehension. It always occurs to me in looking through 
the new schools of the present day, that I ought to be thankful to 
persons whc^ know so much for condescending to speak to me at 



168 KORTH AMERICA. 

all in plain English. I said a word to the gentleman who was 
with me about horses, seeing a lot of lads going to their riding les- 
son. But he was down upon me, and crushed me instantly be- 
neath the weight of my own ignorance. He walked me up to the 
image of a horse, which he took to pieces bit by bit, taking off 
skin, muscle, flesh, nerves and bones, till the animal was a heap of 
atoms, and assured me that the anatomy of the horse throughout 
was one of the necessary studies of the place. We afterwards 
went to see the riding. The horses themselves were poor enough. 
This was accounted for by the fact that such of them as had been 
found fit for military service had been taken for the use of the 
army. 

There is a gallery in the College in which are hung sketches 
and pictures by former students. I was greatly struck with the 
merit of many of these. There were some copies from well-known 
works of art of very high excellence, when the age is taken into 
account of those by whom they were done. I don't know how far 
the art of drawing, as taught generally and with no special tend- 
ency to military instruction, may be necessary for military train- 
ing ; but if it be necessary I should imagine that more is done in 
that direction at West Point than at Sandhurst. I found, how- 
ever, that much of that in the gallery which was good had been 
done by lads who had not obtained their degree, and who had 
shown an aptitude for drawing, but had not shown any aptitude 
for other pursuits necessary to their intended career. 

And then we were taken to the chapel, and there saw, displayed 
as trophies, two of our own dear old English flags. I have seen 
many a banner hung up in token of past victory, and many a flag 
taken on the field of battle mouldering by degrees into dust on 
some chapel's wall, — but they have not been the flags of England. 
Till this day I had never seen our own colours in any position but 
one of self-assertion and independent power. From the tone used 
by the gentleman who showed them to me, I could gather that he 
would have passed them by had he not foreseen that he could not 
do so without my notice. "I don't know that we are right to 
put them there," he said. '' Quite right," was my reply, " as long 
las the world does such things." In private life it is vulgar to tri- 
umph over one's friends, and malicious to triumph over one's ene- 
mies. We have not got so far yet in public life, but I hope we 
are advancing toward it. In the mean time I did not begrudge 
the Americans our two flags. If we keep flags and cannons taken 
from our enemies, and show them about as signs of our own prow- 
ess after those enemies have become friends, why should not others 



BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 160 

do so as regards us? It clearly would not be well for the world 
that we should always beat other nations and never be beaten. 1 
did not begrudge that chapel our two flags. But nevertheless the 
sight of them made me sick in the stomach and uncomfortable. 
As an Englishman I do not want to be ascendant over any one. 
But it makes me very ill when any one tries to be ascendant over 
me. I wish we could send back with our compliments all the 
trophies that we hold, carriage paid, and get back in return those 
two flags and any other flag or two of our own that may be doino- 
similar duty about the world. I take it that the parcel sent away 
would be somewhat more bulky than that which would reach us 
in return. 

The discipline at West Point seemed, as I have said, to be very 
severe ; but it seemed also that that severity could not in all cases 
be maintained. The hours of study also were long, being nearly 
continuous throughout the day. *' English lads of that age could 
not do it," I said ; thus confessing that English lads must have 
in tliem less power of sustained work than those of America. 
*' They must do it here," said my informant, " or else leave us.'' 
And then he took us off to one of the young gentleman's quarters, 
' in order that we might see the nature of their rooms. We found 
the young gentleman fast asleep on his bed, and felt uncommonly 
grieved that we should have thus intruded on him. As the hour 
was one of those allocated by my informant in the distribution of 
the day to private study, I could not but take the present occupa* 
tion of the embryo warrior as an indication that the amount of la- 
bour required might be occasionally too much even for an Ameri- 
can youth. " The heat makes one so uncommonly drowsy," said 
the young man. I was not the least surprised at the exclamation. 
The air of the apartment had been warmed up to such a pitch by 
the hot-pipe apparatus of the building that prolonged life to me 
would, I should have thought, be out of the question in such an 
atmosphere. " Do you always have it as hot as this ?" I asked. 
The young man swore that it was so, and with considerable en- 
ergy expressed his opinion that all his health and spirits and vi- 
tality were being baked out of him. He seemed to have a strong 
opinion on the matter, for which I respected him ; but it had never 
occurred to him, and did not then occur to him, that anything 
could be done to moderate that deathly flow of hot air which came 
up to him from the neighbouring infernal regions. He was pale 
in the face, and all the lads there were pale. American lads and 
lasses are all pale. Men at thirty and women at twenty -five have 
had all semblance of youth baked out of them. Infants even are 

H 



170 NORTH AMERICA. 

not rosy, and the only shades known on the cheeks of children are 
those composed of brown, yellow, and white. All this comes of 
those damnable hot-air pipes with which every tenement in Amer- 
ica is infested. " We cannot do without them," they say. " Our 
cold is so intense that we must heat our houses throughout. Open 
fire-places in a few rooms would not keep our toes and fingers 
from the frost." There is much in this. The assertion is no 
doubt true, and thereby a great difficulty is created. It is no 
doubt quite within the power of American ingenuity to moderate 
the heat of these stoves, and to produce such an atmosphere as 
may be most conducive to health. In hospitals no doubt this will 
be done ; perhaps is done at present, — though even in hospitals I 
have thought the air hotter than it should be. But hot-air-drink- 
ing is like dram-drinking. There is the machine within the house 
capable of supplying any quantity, and those who consume it un- 
consciously increase their draughts, and take their drams stronger 
and stronger, till a breath of fresh air is felt to be a blast direct 
from Boreas. * 

West Point is at all points a military colony, and as such be- 
longs exclusively to the Federal Government as separate from the 
Government of any individual State. It is the purchased property' 
of the United States as a whole, and is devoted to the necessities of 
a military college. No man could take a house there, or succeed 
in getting even permanent lodgings, unless he belonged to or were 
employed by the establishment. There is no intercourse by road 
between West Point and other towns or villages on the river side, 
and any such intercourse even by water is looked upon with jeal- 
ousy by the authorities. The wish is that West Point should be 
isolated and kept apart for military instruction to the exclusion 
of all other purposes whatever, — especially love-making purposes. 
The coming over from the other side of the water of young ladies 
by the ferry is regarded as a great hindrance. They will come, 
and then the military students will talk to them. We all know 
to what such talking leads ! A lad when I was there had been 
tempted to get out of barracks in plain clothes, in order that he 
might call on a young lady at the hotel ; — and was in consequence 
obliged to abandon his commission and retire from the Academy- 
Will that young lady ever again sleep quietly in her bed? I 
should hope not. An opinion was expressed to me that there 
should be no hotel in such a place^; — that there should be no fer- 
ry, no roads, no means by which the attention of the students 
should be distracted ; — that these military Rasselases should live 
in a happy military valley from which might be excluded both 



i 



BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. 171 

strong drinks and female charms, — those two poisons from which 
youthful military ardour is supposed to suffer so much. 

It always seems to me that such training begins at the wrong 
end. I will not say that nothing should be done to keep lads of 
eighteen from strong drinks. I will not even say that there should 
not be some line of moderation with reference to feminine allure- 
ments. But as a rule the restraint should come from the sense, 
good feeling, and education of him who is restrained. There is no 
embargo on the beer-shops either at Harrow or at Oxford, — and 
certainly none upon the young ladies. Occasional damage may 
accrue from habits early depraved, or a heart too early and too 
easily susceptible ; but the injury so done is not, I think, equal to 
that inflicted by a Draconian code of morals, which will probably 
be evaded, and will certainly create a desire for its evasion. 

Nevertheless, I feel assured that West Point, taken as a whole, 
is an excellent military academy, and that young men have gone 
forth from it, and will go forth from it, fit for officers as far as 
training can make men fit. The fault, if fault there be, is that 
which is to be found in so many of the institutions of the United 
States; and is one so allied to a virtue that no foreigner has a 
right to wonder that it is regarded in the light of a virtue by all 
Americans. There has been an attempt to make the place too 
perfect. In the desire to have the establishment self-sufficient at 
all points, more has been attempted than human nature can 
achieve. The lad is taken to West Point, and it is presumed 
that from the moment of his reception, he shall expend every en- 
ergy of his mind and body in making himself a soldier. At fif- 
teen he is not to be a boy, at twenty he is not to be a young man. 
He is to be a gentleman, a soldier, and an officer. I believe that 
those who leave the College for the army are gentlemen, soldiers, 
and officers, and therefore the result is good. But they are also 
young men ; and it seems that they have become so, not in accord- 
ance with their training, but in spite of it. 

But I have another complaint to make against the authorities 
of West Point, which they will not be able to answer so easily as 
that already preferred. What right can they have to take the 
very prettiest spot on the Hudson — the prettiest spot on the con- 
tinent — one of the prettiest spots which Nature, with all her vaga- 
ries, ever formed — and shut it up from all the world for purposes 
of war ? Would not any plain, however ugly, do for military ex- 
ercises? Cannot broadsword, goose-step, and double quick time 
be instilled into young hands and legs in any field of thirty, forty, 
or fifty acres ? I wonder whether these lads appreciate the fact 



172 NORTH AMERICA. 

that they are studying fourteen hours a day amidst the sweetest 
river, rock, and mountain scenery that the imagination can con- 
ceive. Of course it will be said that the world at large is not ex- 
cluded from West Point, that the ferry to the place is open, and 
that there is even a hotel there, closed against no man or woman 
who will consent to become a teetotaller for the period of his vis- 
it. I must admit that this is so ; but still one feels that one is 
only admitted as a guest. I want to go and live at West Point, 
and why should I be prevented'? The Government had a right 
to buy it of course, but Government should not buy up the pret- 
tiest spots on a country's surface. If I were an American I 
should make a grievance of this ; but Americans will suffer things 
from their Government Avhich no Englishmen would endure. 

It is one of the peculiarities of West Point that every thing 
there is in good taste. The Point itself consists of a bluff of land 
so formed that the river Hudson is forced to run round three sides 
of it. It is consequently a peninsula, and as the surrounding 
country is mountainous on both sides of the river, it may be imag- 
ined that the site is good. The views both up and down the riv- 
er are lovely, and the mountains behind break themselves so as to 
make the landscape perfect. But this is not all. At West Point 
there is much of buildings, much of military arrangement in the 
way of cannons, forts, and artillery yards. All these things are 
so contrived as to group themselves well into pictures. There is 
no picture of architectural grandeur ; but everything stands well 
and where it should stand, ard the eye is not hurt at any spot. I 
regard West Point as a delightful place, and was much gratified 
by the kindness I received there. 

From West Point we went direct to New York. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. 

I THINK it may be received as a fact that the Northern States, 
taken together, sent a full tenth of their able-bodied men into the 
ranks of the army in the course of the summer and autumn of 
1861. The South, no doubt, sent a much larger proportion ; but 
the effect of such a drain upon the South would not be the same, 
because the slaves were left at home to perform the agricultural 
work of the country. I very much doubt whether any other na- 
tion ever made such an effort in so short a time. To a people 
who can do this it may well be granted that they are in earnest ; 



i 



AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. 173 

and I do not think it should be lightly decided by any foreigner 
that they are wrong. The strong and unanimous impulse of a 
great people is seldom wrong. And let it be borne in mind that 
in this case both people may be right, — the people both of North 
and South. Each may have been guided by a just and noble feel- 
ing ; though each was brought to its present condition by bad gov- 
ernment and dishonest statesmen. 

There can be no doubt that, since the commencement of the 
war the American feeling against England has been very bitter. 
All Americans to whom I spoke on the subject admitted that it 
was so. I, as an Englishman, felt strongly the injustice of this feel- 
ing, and lost no opportunity of showing or endeavouring to show 
that the line of conduct pursued by England towards the States 
was the only line which was compatible with her own policy and 
just interests, and also with the dignity of the States' Government. 
I heard much of the tender sympathy of Russia. Russia sent a 
flourishing general message, saying that she wished the North 
might win, and ending with some good general advice, proposing 
peace. It was such a message as strong nations send to those 
which are weaker. Had England ventured on such council the 
diplomatic paper would probably have been returned to her. It 
is, I think, manifest that an absolute and disinterested neutrality 
has been the only course which could preserve England from de- 
served rebuke, — a neutrality on which her commercial necessity 
for importing cotton or exporting her own manufactures should 
have no effect. That our government would preserve such a neu- 
trality I have always insisted, and I believe it has been done with 
a pure and strict disregard to any selfish views on the part of 
Great Britain. So far I think England may feel that she has 
done well in this matter. But I must confess that I have not 
been so proud of the tone of all our people at home, as I have been 
of the decisions of our statesmen. It seems to me that some of 
us never tire in abusing the Americans, and calling them names 
for having allowed themselves to be driven into this civil war. 
We tell them that they are fools and idiots ; we speak of their do- 
ings as though there had been some plain course by which the war 
might have been avoided ; and we throw it in their teeth that they 
have no capability for war. We tell them of the debt which the 
are creating, and point out to them that they can never pay it. 
We laugh at their attempt to sustain loyalty, and speak of them 
as a steady father of a family is wont to speak of some unthrifty 
prodigal who is throwing away his estate and hurrying from one 
ruinous debauchery to another. And, alas ! we too frequently al- 



174 NORTH AMERICA. 

low to escape from us some expression of that satisfaction which 
one rival tradesman has in the downfall of another. " Here you 
are with all your boasting," is what we say. " You were going* 
to whip all creation the other day; and it has come to this! 
Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better. Pray remember 
that, if ever you find yourselves on your legs again." That little 
advice about the two dogs is very well, and was not altogether in- 
applicable. But this is not the time in which it should be given. 
Putting aside slight asperities, we will all own that the people of 
the States have been and are our friends, and that as friends we 
cannot spare them. For one Englishman who brings home to his 
own heart a feeling of cordiality for France — a belief in the affec- 
tion of our French alliance — there are ten who do so with refer- 
ence to the States. Now, in these days of their trouble, I think 
that we might have borne with them more tenderly. 

And how was it possible that they should have avoided this 
war? I will not now go into the cause of it, or discuss the course 
which it has taken, but will simply take up the fact of the rebel- 
lion. The South rebelled against the North, and such being the 
case, was it possible that the North should yield without a war ? 
It may very likely be well that Hungary should be severed from 
Austria, or Poland from Kussia, or Venice from Austria. Taking 
Englishmen in a lump they think that such separation would be 
well. The subject people do not speak* the language of those that 
govern them, or enjoy kindred interests. But yet when military 
efforts are made by those who govern Hungary, Poland, and Ven- 
ice, to prevent such separation, we do not say that Kussia and 
Austria are fools. We are not surprised that they should take 
up arms against the rebels, but would be very much surprised in- 
deed if they did not do so. We know that nothing but weakness 
would prevent their doing so. But if Austria and Russia insist 
on tying to themselves a people who do not speak their language 
or live in accordance with their habits, and are not considered un- 
reasonable in so insisting, how much more thoroughly would they 
carry with them the sympathy of their neighbours in preventing 
any secession by integral parts of their own nationalities? Would 
England let Ireland walk off by herself if she wished it? In 1843 
she did wish it. Three-fourths of the Irish population would have 
voted for such a separation ; but England would have prevented 
such secession vi et armis had Ireland driven her to the necessity 
of such prevention. 

I will put it to any reader of history whether, since government 
commenced, it has not been regarded as the first duty of govern- 



AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. 175 

ment to prevent a separation of the territories governed, and 
whether also it has not been regarded as a point of honour with all 
nationalities to preserve uninjured' each its own greatness and its 
own power ? I trust that I may not be thought to argue that all 
governments or even all nationalities should succeed in such en- 
deavours. Few kings have fallen in my day in whose fate 1 have 
not rejoiced ; none, I take it, except that poor citizen King of the 
French. And I can rejoice that England lost her American colo- 
nies, and shall rejoice when Spain has been deprived of Cuba. 
But I hold that citizen King of the French in small esteem, seeing 
that he made no fight, and I know that England was bound to 
struggle when the Boston people threw her tea into the water. 
Spain keeps a tighter hand on Cuba than we thought she would 
some ten years since, and therefore she stands higher in the world's 
respect. 

It may be well that the South should be divided from the North. 
I am inclined to think that it would be well — at any rate for 'the 
North; but the South must have been aware that such division 
could only be effected in two ways ; either by agreement, — in 
which case the proposition must have been brought forward by 
the South and discussed by the North, — or by violence. They 
chose the latter way, as being the readier and the surer, as most 
seceding nations have done. O'Connell, when struggling for the 
secession of Ireland, chose -the other, and nothing came of it. The 
South chose violence, and prepared for it secretly and with great 
adroitness. If that be not rebellion there never has been rebellion 
since history began ; and if civil war was ever justified in one por- 
tion of a nation by turbulence in another, it has now been justified 
in the Northern States of America . 

What was the North to do ; this foolish North, which has been 
so liberally told by us that she has taken up arms for nothing, that 
she is fighting for nothing, and will ruin herself for nothing? 
When was she to take the first step towards peace ? Surely every 
Englishman will remember that when the earliest tidings of the 
coming quarrel reached us on the election of Mr. Lincoln, we all 
declared that any division was impossible ; — it was a mere mad- 
ness to speak of it. The States, which were so great in their uni- 
ty, would never consent to break up all their prestige and all their 
power by a separation ! Would it have been well for the North 
then to say, *' If the South wish it we will certainly separate ?" 
After that, when Mr. Lincoln assumed the power to which he had 
been elected, and declared with sufficient manliness, and sufficient 
dignity also, that he would make no war upon the South, but 



176 NORTH AMERICA. 

would collect the customs and carry on the government, did we 
turn round and advise him that he was wrong? No. The idea 
in England then was that his message was, if anything, too mild. 
" If he means to be President of the whole Union," England said, 
"he must come out with something stronger than that." Then 
came Mr. Seward's speech, which was, in truth, weak enough. Mr. 
Seward had ran Mr. Lincoln very hard for the President's chair on 
the republican interest, and was — most unfortunately, as I think 
— made Secretary of State by Mr. Lincoln, or by his party. The 
Secretary of State holds the highest office in the United States 
Government under the President. He cannot be compared to our 
Prime Minister, seeing that the President himself exercises politic- 
al power, and is responsible for its exercise. Mr. Seward's speech 
simply amounted to a declaration that separation was a thing of 
which the Union would neither hear, speak, nor, if possible, think. 
Things looked very like it ; but no ; they could never come to 
that! The world was too good, and especially the American 
world. Mr. Seward had no specific against secession ; but let ev- 
ery free man strike his breast, look up to heaven, determine to be 
good, and all would go right. A great deal had been expected 
from Mr. Seward, and when this speech came out, we in England 
were a little disappointed, and nobody presumed even then that the 
North would let the South go. 

It will be argued by those who have gone into the details of 
American politics that an acceptance of the Crittenden compro- 
mise at this point would have saved the war. What is or was 
the Crittenden compromise I will endeavour lo explain hereafter; 
but the terms and meaning of that compromise can have no bear- 
ing on the subject. The republican party who were in power dis- 
approved of that compromise, and could not model their course 
upon it. The republican party may have been right or may have 
been wrong; but surely it will not be argued that any political 
party elected to power by a majority should follow the policy of 
a minority, lest that minority should rebel. I can conceive of no 
government more lowly placed than one which deserts the policy 
of the majority wiiicli supports it, fearing either the tongues or 
arms of a minority. 

As the next scene in the play, the State of South Carolina bom- 
barded Fort Sumter. Was that to be the moment for a peaceable 
separation"? Let us suppose that O'Connell had marched down 
to the Pigeon House at Dublin, and had taken it — in 1843, let us 
say — would that have been an argument to us for allowing Ire- 
land to set up for herself? Is that the way of men's minds, or 



AN APOLOGY FOK THE WAR. 177 

of the minds of nations ? The powers of the President were de- 
fined by law, as agreed upon among all the States of the Union, 
and against that power and against that law, South Carolina raised 
her hand, and the other States joined her in rebellion. When cir- 
cumstances had come to that, it was no longer possible that the 
North should shun the war. To my thinking the rights of rebel- 
lion are holy. Where would the world have been, or where would 
the world hope to be, without rebellion ? But let rebellion look 
the truth in the face, and not blanch from its own consequences. 
She has to judge her own opportunities and to decide on her own 
fitness. Success is the test of her judgment. But rebellion can 
never be successful except by overcoming the power against which 
she raises herself. She has no right to expect bloodless triumphs ; 
and if she be not the stronger in the encounter which she creates, 
she must bear the penalty of her rashness. Kebellion is justified 
by being better served than constituted authority, but cannot be 
justified otherwise. Now and again it may happen that rebel- 
lion's cause is so good that constituted authority will fall to the 
ground at the first glance of her sword. This was so the other 
day in Naples, when Garibaldi blew away the king's armies with 
a breath. But this is not so often. Rebellion knows that it must 
fight, and the legalized power against which rebels rise must of 
necessity fight also. 

I cannot see at what point the North first sinned ; nor do I 
think that had the North yielded, England would have honoured 
her for her meekness. Had she yielded without striking a blow 
she would have been told that she had suffered the Union to drop 
asunder by her supineness. She would have been twitted with 
cowardice, and told that she was no match for Southern energy. 
It would then have seemed to those who sat in judgment on her 
that she might have righted everything by that one blow from 
which she had abstained. But having struck that one blow, and 
having found that it did not suffice, could she then withdraw, give 
way, and own herself beaten? Has it been so usually with Anglo- 
Saxon pluck? In such case as that would there have been no 
mention of those two dogs. Brag and Holdfast? The man of the 
northern States knows that he has bragged, — bragged as loudly as 
his English forefathers. In that matter of bragging the British 
lion and the Star-spangled banner may abstain from throwing mud 
at each other. And now the northern man wishes to show that 
he can hold fast also. Looking at all this J cannot see that peace 
has been possible to the North. 

As to the question of secession and rebellion being one and the 

H2 



178 NORTH AMERICA. 

same thing, the point to me does not seem to bear an argument. 
The confederation of States had a common army, a common pol- 
icy, a common capital, a common government, and a common debt. 
If one might secede, any or all might secede, and where then would 
be their property, their debt, and their servants ? A confederation 
with such a license attached to it would have been simply playing 
at national power. If New York had seceded — a State which 
stretches from the Atlantic to British North America — it would 
have cut New England off from the rest of the Union. Was it 
legally within the power of New York to place the six States of 
New England in such a position 1 And why should it be assumed 
that so suicidal a power of destroying a nationality should be in- 
herent in every portion of the nation '? The States are bound to- 
gether by a written compact, but that compact gives each State no 
such power. Surely such a power would have been specified had 
it been intended that it should be given. But there are axioms 
in politics as in mathematics, which recommend themselves to the 
mind at once, and require no argument for their proof. Men who 
are not argumentative perceive at once that they are true. A part 
cannot be greater than the whole. 

I think it is plain that the remnant of the Union was bound to 
take up arms against those States which had illegally torn them- 
selves off from her; and if so, she could only do so with such 
weapons as were at her hand. The United States' army had 
never been numerous or well appointed ; and of such officers and 
equipments as it possessed, the more valuable part was in the 
hands of the Southerners. It was clear enough that she was ill- 
provided, and that in going to war she was undertaking a work as 
to which she had still to learn many of the rudiments. But En- 
glishmen should be the last to twit her with such ignorance. It 
is not yet ten years since we were all boasting that swords and 
guns were useless things, and that military expenditure might be 
cut down to any minimum figure that an economizing Chancellor 
of the Exchequer could name. Since that we have extemporized 
two, if not three armies. There are our volunteers at home ; and 
the army which holds India can hardly be considered as one with 
that which is to maintain our prestige in Europe and the West. 
We made some natural blunders in the Crimea, but in making 
those blunders we taught ourselves the trade. It is the misfor- 
tune of the northern States that they must learn these lessons in 
fighting their own couqitrymen. In the course of our history we 
have suffered the same calamity more than once. The Round- 
heads, who beat the Cavaliers and created English liberty, made 



AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. 179 

themselves soldiers on the bodies of their countrymen. But En- 
gland was not ruined by that civil war ; nor was she ruined by 
those which preceded it. From out of these she came forth 
stronger than she entered them, — stronger, better, and more fit for 
a great destiny in the history of nations. The northern States 
had nearly five hundred thousand men under arms when the win- 
ter of 1861 commenced, and for that enormous multitude all com- 
missariat requirements were well supplied. Camps and barracks 
sprang up through the country as though by magic. Clothing was 
obtained with a rapidity that has, I think, never been equalled. 
The country had not been prepared for the fabrication of arms, 
and yet arms were put into the men's hands almost as quickly as 
the regiments could be mustered. _ The eighteen millions of the 
northern States lent themselves to the effort as one man. Each 
State gave the best it had to give. Newspapers were as rabid 
against each other as ever, but no newspaper could live which did 
not support the war. " The South has rebelled against the law, 
and the law shall be supported." This has been the cry and the 
heartfelt feeling of all men ; and it is a feeling which cannot but 
inspire respect. 

We have heard much of the tyranny of the present Government 
of the United States, and of the tyranny also of the people. They 
have both been very tyrannical. The " habeas corpus" has been 
suspended by the word of one man. Arrests have been made on 
men who have been hardly suspected of more than secession princi- 
ples. Arrests have, I believe, been made in cases which have been 
destitute even of any fair ground for such suspicion. Newspapers 
have been stopped for advocating views opposed to the feelings of 
the North, as freely as newspapers were ever stopped in France for 
opposing the Emperor. A man has not been safe in the streets 
who was known to be a Secessionist. It must be at once admitted 
that opinion in the northern States was not free when I was there. 
But has opinion ever been free anywhere on all subjects ? In the 
best-built strongholds of freedom have there not always been ques- 
tions on which opinion has not been free ; and must it not always 
be so ? When the decision of a people on any matter has become, 
so to say, unanimous, — when it has shown itself to be so general 
as to be clearly the expression of the nation's voice as a single 
chorus, — that decision becomes holy, and may not be touched. 
Could any newspaper be produced in England which advocated 
the overthrow of the Queen ? And why may not the passion for 
the Union be as strong with the northern States, as the passion 
for the Crown is strong with us? The Crown with us is in no 



180 NORTH AMEEICA. 

clanger, and therefore the matter is at rest. But I think we must 
admit that in any nation, let it be ever so free, there may be points 
on which opinion must be hekl under restraint. And as to those 
summary arrests, and the suspension of the "habeas corpus," is 
there not something to be said for tlie States' Government on that 
head also ? Military arrests are very dreadful, and the soul of a 
nation's liberty is that personal freedom from arbitrary interference 
which is signified to the world by those two unintelligible Latin 
words. A man's body shall not be kept in duress at any man's 
will; but shall be brought up into open court, with uttermost 
speed, in order that the law may say whether or no it should be 
kept in duress. That I take it is the meaning of " habeas corpus," 
and it is easy to see that the suspension of that privilege destroys 
all freedom, and places the liberty of every individual at the mercy 
of him who has the power to suspend it. Nothing can be worse 
than this ; and such suspension, if extended over any long period 
of years, will certainly make a nation weak, mean-spirited, and 
poor. But in a period of civil war, or even of a widely-extended 
civil commotion, things cannot work in their accustomed grooves. 
A lady does not willingly get out of her bedroom-window with 
nothing on but her night-gown; but when her house is on fire she 
is very thankful for an opportunity of doing so. It is not long 
since the " habeas corpus" was suspended in parts of Ireland, and 
absurd arrests were made almost daily when that suspension first 
took eifect. It was grievous that there should be necessity for 
such a step, and it is very grievous now that such necessity should 
be felt in the northern States. But I do not think that it becomes 
Englishmen to bear hardly upon Americans generally for what has 
been done in that matter. Mr. Seward, in an official letter to the 
British Minister at Washington — which letter, through official dis- 
honesty, found its way to the press — claimed for the President the 
right of suspending the " habeas corpus" in the States whenever it 
might seem good to him to do so. If this be in accordance with 
the law of the land, which I think must be doubted, the law of the 
land is not favourable to freedom. For myself, I conceive that 
Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward have been wrong in their law, and 
that no such right is given to the President by the Constitution of 
the United States. This I will attempt to prove in some subse- 
quent chapter. But I think it must be felt by all who have given 
any thought to the constitution of the States, that let what may 
be the letter of the law, the Presidents of the United States have 
had no such power. It is because the States have been no longer 
united that Mr. Lincoln has had the power, whether it be given to 
him by the law or no. 



AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. 181 

And then as to the debt ; it seems to me very singular that we 
in England should suppose that a great commercial people would 
be ruined by a national debt. As regards ourselves, I have al- 
ways looked on our national debt as the ballast in our ship. We 
have a great deal of ballast, but then the ship is very big. The 
States also are taking in ballast at a rather rapid rate ; — and we 
too took it in quickly when we were about it. But I cannot un- 
derstand why their ship should not carry, without shipwreck, that 
which our ship has carried without damage, and, as I believe, with 
positive advantage to its sailing. The ballast, if carried honestly, 
will not, I think, bring the vessel to grief. The fear is lest the 
ballast should be thrown overboard. 

So much I have said, wishing to plead the cause of the north- 
ern States before the bar of English opinion, and thinking that 
there is ground for a plea in their favour. But yet I cannot say 
that their bitterness against Englislimen has been justified, or that 
their tone towards England has been dignified. Their complaint 
is that they have received no sympathy from England ; but it 
seems to me that a great nation should not require an expression 
of sympathy during its struggle. Sympathy is for the weak rath- 
er than for the strong. When I hear two powerful men contend- 
ing together in argument, I do not sympathize with him who has 
the best of it ; but I watch the precision of his logic, and acknowl- 
edge the effects of his rhetoric. There has been a whining weak- 
ness in th& complaints made by Americans against England, which 
has done more to lower them as a people in my judgment than 
any other part of their conduct during the present crisis. When 
we were at war with Russia, the feeling of the States was strong- 
ly against us. All their wishes were with our enemies. When 
the Indian mutiny was at its worst, the feeling of France was 
equally adverse to us. The joy expressed by the French newspa- 
pers was almost ecstatic. But I do not think that on either oc- 
casion we bemoaned ourselves sadly on the want of sympathy 
shown by our friends. On each occasion we took the opinion ex- 
pressed for what it was worth, and managed to live it down. We 
listened to what was said, and let it pass by. When in each case 
we had been successful, there was an end of our friends' croak- 
ings. 

But in the northern States of America the bitterness against 
England has amounted almost to a passion. The players, those 
chroniclers of the time, have had no hits so sure as those which 
have been aimed at Englishmen as cowards, fools, and liars. No 
paper has dared to say that England has been true in her Araeri- 



182 NORTH AMERICA. 

can policy. The name of an Englishman has been made a byword 
for reproach. In private intercourse private amenities have re- 
mained. I, at any rate, may boast that such has been the case as 
regards myself I3ut even in private life I have been unable to 
keep down the feeling that I have always been walking over smoth- 
ered ashes. 

It may be that, when the civil war in America is over, all this 
will pass by, and there Avill be nothing left of international bitter- 
ness but its memory. It is sincerely to be hoped that this may 
be so ; — that even the memory of the existing feeling may fade 
away and become unreal. I for one cannot think that two na- 
tions, situated as are the States and England, should permanently 
quarrel and avoid each other. But words have been spoken which 
will, I fear, long sound in men's ears, and thoughts have sprung 
up which will not easily allow themselves to be extinguished. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

NEW YORK. 

Speaking of New York as a traveller I have two faults to 
find with it. In the first place there is nothing to see ; and in 
the second place there is no mode of getting about to see any- 
thing. Nevertheless New York is a most interesting city. It 
is the third biggest city in the known world ; — for those Chi- 
nese congregations of un winged ants are not cities in the known 
world. In no other city is there a population so mixed and 
cosmopolitan in their modes of life. And yet in no other city 
that I have seen are there such strong and ever-visible charac- 
teristics of the social and political bearings of the nation to 
which it belongs. New York appears to me as infinitely more 
American than Boston, Chicago, or Washington. It has no 
peculiar attribute of its own, as have those three cities ; Bos- 
ton in its literature and accomplished intelligence, Chicago in 
its internal trade, and Washington in its congressional and 
State politics. New York has its literary aspirations, its com- 
mercial grandeur, and, — heaven knows, — it has its politics also. 
But these do not strike the visitor as being specially character- 
istic of the city. That it is pre-eminently American is its glory 
or its disgrace, — as men df different ways of thinking may de- 
cide upon it. Free institutions, general education, and the as- 
cendancy of dollars are the words written on every paving- 
stone along Fifth Avenue, down Broadway, and up Wall Street. 
Every man can vote, and values the privilege. Every man can 



NETV YORK. 183 

read, and uses the privilege. vEv(y.'y man worships the dollar, 
and is down before his shrine from morning to night. 

As regards voting and reading no American will be angry 
with me for saying so much of him; and no Englishman, what- 
ever may be his ideas as to the franchise in his own country, 
will conceive that I have said aught to the dishonour of an 
American. But as to that dollar-worshipping, it will of course 
seem that I am abusing the New Yorkers. We all know what 
a wretchedly wicked thing money is ! How it stands between 
us and heaven ! How it hardens our hearts, and makes vulgar 
our thoughts ! Dives has ever gone to the devil, while Laza- 
rus has been laid up in heavenly lavender. The hand that em- 
ploys itself in compelling gold to enter the service of man has 
always been stigmatized as" the ravisher of things sacred. The 
world is agreed about that, and therefore the New Yorker is 
in a bad way. There are very few citizens in any town known 
to me which under this dispensation are in a good way, but 
the New Yorker is in about the worst way of all. Other men, 
the world over, worship regularly at the shrine with matins 
and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever other daily 
services may be known to the religious houses; but the New 
Yorker is always on his knees. 

That is the amount of the charge which I bring against New 
York; and now having laid on my paint thickly, I shall pro- 
ceed, like an unskilful artist, to scrape a great deal of it oft 
again. New York has been a leading commercial city in the 
world for not more than fifty or sixty years. As far as I can 
learn, its population at the close of the last century did not ex- 
ceed 60,000, and ten years later it had not reached 100,000. 
In 1860 it had reached nearly 800,000 in the city of New York 
itself To this number must be added the numbers of Brook- 
lyn, Williamsburgh, and Jersey City, in order that a true con- 
ception may be had of the population of this American me- 
tropolis, seeing that those places are as much a part of New 
York as Southwark is of London. By this the total will be 
swelled to considerably above a million. It will no doubt be 
admitted that this growth has been very fast, and that New 
York may well be proud of it. Increase of population is, I 
take it, the only trustworthy sign of a nation's success or of a 
city's success. We boast that London has beaten the other 
cities of the world, and think that that boast is enough to cov- 
er all the social sins for which London has to confess her guilt. 
New York beginning with 60,000 sixty years since has now a 
million souls ; — a million mouths, all of which eat a sufficiency 



184 NORTH AMEEICA. 

of bread, all of which speak we rotimdo^ and almost all of which 
can read. And this has come of its love of dollars. 

For myself I do not believe that Dives is so black as he is 
painted, or that his peril is so imminent. To reconcile such an 
opinion with holy writ might place me in some difficulty were 
I a clergyman. Clergymen in these days are surrounded by 
difficulties of this nature, finding it necessary to explain away 
many old-established teachings which narrowed the Christian 
Church, and to open the door wide enough to satisfy the aspi- 
rations and natural hopes of instructed men. The brethren of 
Dives are now so many and so intelligent that they will no lon- 
ger consent to be damned, without looking closely into the 
matter themselves. I wdll leave them to settle the matter with 
the Church, merely assuring them of my sympathies in their 
little difficulties in any case in which mere money causes the 
hitch. 

To eat his bread in the sweat of his brow w^as man's curse in 
Adam's day, but is certainly man's blessing in our day. And 
Avhat is eating one's bread in the sweat of one's brow but mak- 
ing money ? I will believe no man who tells me that he would 
not sooner earn two loaves than one ; — and if two, then two 
hundred. I will believe no man who tells me that he w^ould 
sooner earn one dollar a day than two ; — and if two, then two 
hundred. That is, in the very nature of the argument, — cmte- 
ris paribus. When a man tells me that he would prefer one 
honest loaf to two that are dishonest, I will, in all possible cases, 
believe him. So also a man may prefer one quiet loaf to two 
that are unquiet. But under circumstances that are the same, 
and to a man who is sane, a Avhole loaf is better than half, and 
two loaves are better than one. The preachers have preached 
well, but on this matter they have preached in vain. Dives has 
never believed that he will be damned because he is Dives. He 
has never even believed that the temptations incident to his 
position have been more than a fair counter23oise, or even so 
much as a fair counterpoise, to his opportunities for doing good. 
All men who w^ork desire to prosper by their work, and they 
so desire by the nature given to them from God. Wealth and 
progress must go on hand in hand together, let the accidents 
which occasionally divide them for a time happen as often as 
they may. The progress of the Americans has been caused by 
their aptitude for money-making, and that continual kneeling 
at the shrine of the coined goddess has carried them across 
from New York to San Francisco. Men who kneel at that 
shrine are called on to have ready wits, and quick hands, and 



yfrnv YORK. 185 

not a little aptitude for self-denial. The New Yorker has been 
true to his dollar, because his dollar has been true to him. 

But not on this account can I, nor on this account will any 
Englishman, reconcile himself to the savour of dollars Avhich 
pervades the atmosphere of New York. The ars celare artem 
is wanting. The making of money is the work of man ; but he 
need not take his work to bed with him, and have it ever by 
his side at table, amidst his family, in church, while he disports 
himself, as he declares his passion to the girl of his heart, in 
the mom.ents of his softest bliss, and at the periods of his most 
solemn ceremonies. That many do so elsewhere than in New 
York, — in London, for instance, in Paris, among the mountains 
of Switzerland, and the steppes of Russia, I do not doubt. But 
there is generally a veil thrown over the object of the worship- 
per's idolatry. In New York one's ear is constantly filled with 
the fanatic's voice as he prays, one's eyes are always on the fa- 
miliar altar. The frankincense from the temple is ever in one's 
nostrils. I have never walked down Fifth Avenue alone with- 
out thinking of money. I have never walked there with a com- 
panion without talking of it. I fancy that every man there, in 
order to maintain tlie spirit of the place, should bear on his 
forehead a label stating how many dollars he is worth, and that 
every label should be expected to assert a falsehood. 

I do not think that New York has been less generous in the 
use of its money than other cities, or that the men of New York 
generally are so. Perhaps I might go farther and say that in 
no city has more been achieved for humanity by the munifi- 
cence of its richest citizens than in New York. Its hospitals, 
asylums, and institutions for the relief of all ailments to which 
flesh is heir, are very numerous, and beyond praise in the ex- 
cellence of their arrangements. And this has been achieved in 
a great degree by private liberality. Men in America are not 
as a rule anxious to leave large fortunes to their children. The 
millionaire when making his will very generally gives back a 
considerable portion of the wealth which he has made to the 
city in which he made it. The rich citizen is always anxious 
that the poor citizen shall be relieved. It is a point of honour 
with him to raise the character of his municipality, and to pro- 
vide that the deaf and dumb, the blind, the mad, the idiots, the 
old, and the incurable shall have such alleviation in their mis- 
fortune as skill and kindness can afford. 

Nor is the New Yorker a hugger-mugger with his money. 
He does not hide up his dollars in old stockings and keep rolls 
of gold in hidden pots. He does not even invest it where it 



186 NORTH AMERICA. 

will not grow but only produce small though sure fruit. He 
builds houses, he speculates largely, he spreads himself in trade 
to the extent of his wings, — and not seldom somewhat furtlier. 
He scatters his wealth broadcast over strange fields, trusting 
that it may grow with an increase of an hundred-fold, but bold 
to bear the loss should the strange field prove itself barren. 
His regret at losing his money is by no means commensurate 
with his desire to make it. In this there is a living spirit which 
to me divests the dollar-worshipping idolatry of something of 
its ugliness. The hand when closed on the gold is instantly 
reopened. The idolater is anxious to get, but he is anxious 
also to spend. He is energetic to the last, and has no comfort 
with his stock unless it breeds with transatlantic rapidity of 
procreation. 

So much I say, being anxious to scrape off some of that daub 
of black paint with which I have smeared the face of my New 
Yorker ; but not desiring to scrape it all off. For myself, I 
do not love to live amidst the clink of gold, and never have " a 
good time," as the Americans say, wdien the price of shares 
and percentages come up in conversation. That state of men's 
minds here which I have endeavoured to explain tends, I think, 
to make New York disagreeable. A stranger there Avho has 
no great interest in percentages soon finds himself anxious to 
escape. By degrees he perceives that he is out of his element, 
and had better go away. He calls at the bank, and when he 
shows himself ignorant as to the price at which his sovereigns 
should be done, he is conscious that he is ridiculous. He is 
like a man who goes out hunting for the first time at forty years 
of age. He feels himself to be in the wrong place, and is anx- 
ious to get out of it. Such was my experience of New York, 
at each of the visits that I paid to it. 

But yet, I say again, no other American city is so intensely 
American as New York. It is generally considered that the 
inhabitants of New England, the Yankees properly so called, 
have the American characteristics of physiognomy in the full- 
est degree. The lantern jaws, the thin and lithe body, the dry 
face on which there has been no tint of the rose since the baby's 
long-clothes were first abandoned, the harsh, thick hair, the thin 
lips, the intelligent eyes, the sharp voice with the nasal twang 
— not altogether harsh, though sharp and nasal, — all these traits 
are supposed to belong especially to the Yankee. Perhaps it 
was so once, but at present they are, I think, more universally 
common in New York than in any other part of the States. 
Go to "Wall Street, the front of the Astor House, and the re- 



NEW YOEK. 187 

gions about Trinity Church, and you will find them in their 
fullest perfection. 

What circumstances of blood or food, of early habit or sub- 
sequent education, have created for the latter-day American 
his present physiognomy? It is as completely marked, as 
much his own, as is that of any race under the sun that has 
bred in and in for centuries. But the American owns a more 
mixed blood than any other race known. The chief stock is 
English, Avhich is itself so mixed that no man can trace its ram- 
ifications. With this are mingled the bloods of Ireland, Hol- 
land, France, Sweden, and Germany. All this has been done 
Avithin but a few years, so that the American may be said to 
have no claim to any national type of face. Nevertheless, no 
man has a type of face so clearly national as the American. He 
is acknowledged by it all over the continent of Europe, and on 
his own side of the water is gratified by knowing that he is 
never mistaken for his English visitor. I think it comes from 
the hot-air pipes and from dollar worship. In the Jesuit his 
mode of dealing with things divine has given a peculiar cast of 
countenance ; and why should not the American be similarly 
moulded by his special aspirations ? As to the hot-air pipes, 
there can, I think, be no doubt that to them is to be charged 
the murder of all rosy cheeks throughout the States. If the 
efiect was to be noticed simply in the dry faces of the men 
about Wall Street, I should be very indifierent to the matter. 
But the young ladies of Fifth Avenue are in the same category. 
The very pith and marrow of life is baked out of their young 
bones by the hot-air chambers to which they are accustomed. 
Hot air is the great destroyer of American beauty. 

In saying that there is very little to be seen in New York, I 
have also said that there is no way of seeing that little. My 
assertion amounts to this, — that there are no cabs. To the 
reading world at large this may not seem to be much, but let 
the reading world go to New York, and it will find out how 
much the deficiency means. In London, in Paris, in Florence, 
in Rome, in the Havana, or at Grand Cairo, the cab-driver or 
attendant does not merely drive the cab or belabour the donk- 
ey, but he is the visitor's easiest and cheaj^est guide. In Lon- 
don, the Tower, Westminster Abbey, and Madame Tussaud, 
are found by the stranger without difficulty, and almost without 
a thought, because the cab-driver knows the whereabouts and 
the way. Space is moreover annihilated, and the huge distances 
of the Enghsh metropohs are brought within the scope of mor- 
tal power. But in New York there is no such institution. 



188 NORTH AMERICA. 

lu l^ew York there are street omnibuses as we have, — there 
are street cars such as last year we dechned to have, — and 
there are very excellent public carriages ; but none of these 
give you the accommodation of a cab, nor can all of them com- 
bined do so. The omnibuses, though clean and excellent, were 
to me very unintelUgible. They have no conductor to them. 
To know their different lines and usages a man should have 
made a scientific study of the city. To those going up and 
down Broadway I became accustomed, but in them I was 
never quite at my ease. The money has to be paid through a 
little hole behind the driver's back, and should, as I learned at 
last, be paid immediately on entrance. But in getting up to 
do this I always stumbled about, and it would happen that 
when with considerable difficulty I had settled my own ac- 
count, two or three ladies Avould enter, and would hand me, 
without a word, some coins with which I had no life-long fa- 
miliarity in order that I might go through the same ceremony 
on their account. The change I would usually drop into the 
straw, and then there would arise trouble and unhappiness. 
Before I became aware of that law as to instant payment, bells 
used to be rung at me which made me uneasy. I knew I was 
not behaving as a citizen should behave, but could not compass 
the exact points of my delinquency. And then when I desired 
to escape, the door being strapped up tight, I would halloo 
vainly at the driver through the little hole; whereas, had I 
known my duty, I should have rung a bell, or pulled a strap, 
according to the nature of the omnibus in question. In a 
month or two all these things may possibly be learned; — ^but 
the visitor requires his facilities for locomotion at the first mo- 
ment of his entrance into the city. I heard it asserted by a 
lecturer in Boston, Mr. Wendell Philhps, whose name is there 
a household word, that citizens of the United States carried 
brains in their fingers as well as in their heads, whereas " com- 
mon i]i^ople," by which Mr. Phillips intended to designate the 
remnant of mankind beyond the United States, were blessed 
with no such extended cerebral development. Having once 
learned this fact from Mr. Phillips, I understood why it was 
that a !N"ew York omnibus should be so disagreeable to me, 
and at the same time so suitable to the wants of the New 
Yorkers. 

And then there are street cars — very long omnibuses — 
which run on rails but are dragged by horses. They are 
capable of holding forty passengers each, and as far as my ex- 
perience goes carry an average load of sixty. The fare of the 



NEW YOEK. 189 

omnibus is six cents or three pence. That of the street car five 
cents or two pence half-penny. They run along the difierent 
avenues, taking the length of the city. In the upper or new 
part of the town their course is simple enough, but as they de- 
scend to the Bowery, Peckslip, and Pearl Street, nothing can 
be conceived more difficult or devious than their courses. The 
Broadway omnibus, on the other hand, is a straightforward 
honest vehicle in the lower part of the town, becoming, how- 
ever, dangerous and miscellaneous when it ascends to Union 
Square and the vicinities of fashionable life. 

The street cars are manned with conductors, and therefore 
are free from many of the perils of the omnibus, but they have 
perils of their own. They are always quite full. By that I 
mean that every seat is crowded, that there is a double row 
of men and women standing down the centre, and that the 
driver's platform in front is full, and also the conductor's plat- 
form behind. That is the normal condition of a street car in 
the Third Avenue. You, as a stranger in the middle of the 
car, wish to be put down at, let us say, 89th Street. In the 
map of New York now before me the cross streets running 
from east to west are numbered up northwards as far as 154th 
Street. It is quite useless for you to give the number as you 
enter. Even an American conductor, with brains all over him, 
and an anxious desire to accommodate, as is the case with all 
these men, cannot remember. You are left therefore in misery 
to calculate the number of the street as you move along, vain- 
ly endeavouring through the misty glass to decipher the small 
numbers which after a day or two you perceive to be written 
on the lamp posts. 

But I soon gave up all attempts at keeping a seat in one of 
these cars. It became my practice to sit down on the outside 
iron rail behind, and as the conductor generally sat in my lap 
I was in a measure protected. As for the inside of these vehi- 
cles, the women of New York, were, I must confess, too much 
for me. I would no sooner place myself on a seat, than I would 
be called on by a mute, unexpressive, but still impressive stare 
into my face, to surrender my place. From cowardice if not 
from gallantry I would always obey ; and as this led to discom- 
fort and an irritated spirit, I preferred nursing the conductor 
on the hard bar in the rear. 

And here if I seem to say a word against women in America, 
I beg that it may be understood that I say that word only 
against a certain class ; and even as to that class I admit that 
they are respectable, intelligent, and, as I believe, industrious. 



190 NOETH AMERICA. 

Their manners, however, are to me more odious than those of 
any other human beings that I ever met elsewhere. Nor can 
I go on with that which I have to say without carrying my 
apology further, lest perchance I should be misunderstood by 
some American women whom I would not only exclude from 
my censure, but would include in the very Avarmest eulogium 
whicli words of mine could express as to those of the female 
sex whom I love and admire the most. I have known, do know, 
and mean to continue to know as far as in me may lie, Ameri- 
can ladies as bright, as beautiful, as graceful, as sweet, as mor- 
tal limits for brightness, beauty, grace, and sweetness will per- 
mit. They belong to the aristocracy of the land, by whatever 
means they may have become aristocrats. In America one 
does not inquire as to their birth, their training, or their old 
names. The fact of their aristocratic power comes out in every 
word and look. It is not only so with those who have travelled 
or with those who are rich. I have found female aristocrats 
with families and slender means, who have as yet made no 
grand tour across the ocean. These women are charming be- 
yond expression. It is not only their beauty. Had he been 
speaking of such, Wendell Phillips would have been right in 
saying that they have brains all over them. So much for those 
who are bright and beautiful; who are graceful and sweet! 
And now a word as to those who to me are neither bright 
nor beautiful; and who can be to none either graceful or 
sweet. 

It is a hard task that of speaking ill of any woman, but it 
seems to me that he who takes upon himself to praise incurs 
the duty of dispraising also where disj^raise is, or to him seems 
to be, deserved. The trade of a novelist is very much that of 
describing the softness, sweetness, and loving dispositions of 
women ; and this he does, copying as best he can from nature. 
But if he only sings of that which is sweet, whereas that which 
is not sweet too frequently presents itself, his song will in the 
end be untrue and ridiculous. Women are entitled to much 
observance from men, but they are entitled to no observance 
which is incompatible with truth. Women, by the conventional 
laws of society, are allowed to exact much from men, but they 
are allowed to exact nothing for which they should not make 
some adequate return. It is well that a man should kneel in 
spirit before the grace and Aveakness of a woman, but it is not 
Avell that he should kneel either in spirit or body if there be 
neither grace or weakness. A man should yield everything to 
a Avoman for a Avord, for a smile, — to one look of entreaty. 



NEW YOllK. 191 

But if there be no look of entreaty, no word, no smile, I do 
not see that he is called upon to yield much. 

The happy privileges with which Avomen are at present 
blessed, have come to them from the spirit of chivalry. That 
spirit has taught men to endure in order that women may be 
at their ease ; and has generally taught women to accept the 
ease bestowed on them with grace and thankfulness. But in 
America the spirit of chivalry has sunk deeper among men than 
it has among women. It must be borne in mind that in that 
country material well-being and education are more extended 
than with us ; and that, therefore, men there have learned to 
be chivalrous who with us have hardly progressed so far. The 
conduct of men to women throughout the States is always gra- 
cious. They have learned the lesson. But it seems to me that 
the women have not advanced as far as the men have done. 
They have acquired a sufficient perception of the privileges 
which chivalry gives them, but no perception of that return 
which chivalry demands from them. Women of the class to 
which I allude are always talking of their rights ; but seem to 
have a most indifferent idea of their duties. They have no 
scruple at demanding from men everything that a man can be 
called on to relinquish in a woman's behalf, but they do so 
without any of that grace which turns the demand made into 
a favour conferred. 

I have seen much of this in various cities of America, but 
much more of it in ISTew York than elsewhere. I have heard 
young Americans complain of it, swearing that they must 
change the whole tenor of their habits towards women. I 
have heard American ladies speak of it with loathing and dis- 
gust. For myself, I have entertained on sundry occasions that 
sort of feeling for an American woman which the close vicinity 
of an unclean animal produces. I have spoken of this with ref- 
erence to street cars, because in no position of life does an un- 
fortunate man become more liable to these anti-feminine atroc- 
ities than in the centre of one of these vehicles. The woman, 
as she enters, drags after her a misshapen, dirty mass of battered 
wirework, which she calls her crinoline, and which adds as 
much to her grace and comfort as a log of wood does to a donk- 
ey when tied to the animal's leg in a paddock. Of this she 
takes much heed, not managing it so that it may be conveyed 
up the carriage with some decency, but striking it about against 
men's legs, and heaving it with violence over people's knees. 
The touch of a real woman's dress is in itself delicate ; but these 
blows from a harpy's fins are loathsome. If there be two of 



192 NORTH AMERICA. 

them they talk loudly together, having a theory that modesty 
has been put out of court by women's rights. But, though not 
modest, the woman I describe is ferocious in her propriety. 
She ignores the whole world around her, and as she sits with 
raised chin and face flattened by aflectation, she pretends to 
declare aloud that she is positively not aware that any man is 
even near her. She speaks as though to her, in her woman- 
hood, the neighbourhood of men was the same as that of dogs 
or cats. They are there, but she does not hear them, see them, 
or even acknowledge them by any courtesy of motion. But 
her own face always gives her the lie. In her assumption of 
indifference she displays her nasty consciousness, and in each 
attempt at a would-be propriety is guilty of an immodesty. 
Who does not know the timid retiring face of the young girl 
who when alone among men unknown to her feels that it be- 
comes her to keep herself secluded ? As many men as there 
are around her, so many knights has such a one, ready buck- 
lered for her service, should occasion require such services. 
Should it not, she passes on unmolested, — but not, as she her- 
self will wrongly think, unheeded. But as to her of whom I 
am speaking, we may say that every twist of her body, and 
every tone of her voice is an unsuccessful falsehood. She looks 
square at you in the face, and you rise to give her your seat. 
You rise from a deference to your own old convictions, and 
from that courtesy which you have ever paid to a woman's 
dress, let it be worn with ever such hideous deformities. She 
takes the place from which you have moved without a Avord or 
a bow. She twists herself round, banging your shins with her 
wires, while her chin is still raised, and her face is still flattened, 
and she directs her friend's attention to another seated man, as 
though that place w^ere also vacant, and necessarily at her dis- 
posal. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about chiv- 
alry. I have seen such a thing, and have rejoiced to see it. 

You will meet these women daily, hourly, — everywhere in 
the streets. Now and again you will find them in society, 
making themselves even more odious there than elsewhere. 
Who they are, whence they come, and why they are so unlike 
that other race of women of which I have spoken, you will 
settle for yourself. Do we not all say of our chance acquaint- 
ances after half an hour's conversation, — nay, after half an hour 
spent in the same room without conversation, — that this wo- 
man is a lady, and that that other woman is not? They jostle 
each other even among us, but never seem' to mix. They are 
closely allied ; but neither imbues the other with her attributes. 



NEW YORK. 193 

Both shall be equally well-born, or both shall be equally ill- 
born ; but still it is so. The contrast exists in England ; but 
in America it is much stronger. In England women become 
ladylike or vulgar. In the States they are either charming or 
odious. 

See that female walking down Broadway. She is not exactly 
such a one as her I have attempted to describe on her entrance 
into the street car ; for this lady is well-dressed, if fine clothes 
will make well-dressing. The machinery of her hoops is not 
battered, and altogether she is a personage much more distin- 
guished in all her expenditures. But yet she is a copy of the 
other woman. Look at the train which she drags behind her 
over the dirty pavement, where dogs have been, and chewers 
of tobacco, and everything concerned with filth except a scav- 
enger. At every hundred yards some unhappy man treads 
upon the silken swab which she trails behind her, — loosening 
it dreadfully at the girth one would say ; and then see the style 
of face and the expression of features with which she accepts 
the sinner's half-muttered apology. The world, she supposes, 
owes her everything because of her silken train, — even room 
enough in a crowded thoroughfare to drag it along unmolested. 
But, according to her theory, she owes the world nothing in 
return. She is a woman with perhaps a hundred dollars on her 
back, and having done the world the honour of wearing them 
in the world's presence, expects to be repaid by the world's 
homage and chivalry. But chivalry owes her nothing, — no- 
thing, though she walk about beneath a hundred times a hun- 
dred dollars, — nothing even though she be a woman. Let ev- 
ery woman learn this, — that chivalry owes her nothing unless 
she also acknowledge her debt to chivalry. She must acknowl- 
edge it and pay it ; and then chivalry will not be backward in 
making good her claims upon it. 

All this has come of the street cars. But as it was neces- 
sary that I should say it somewhere, it is as well said on that 
subject as on any other. And now to continue with the street 
cars. They run, as I have said, the length of the town, taking 
parallel lines. They will take you from the Astor House, near 
the bottom of the town, for miles and miles northward, — half 
way up the Hudson river, — for, I believe, five pence. They are 
very slow, averaging about five miles an hour ; but they are 
very sure. For regular inhabitants, who have to travel five or 
six miles perhaps to their daily work, they are excellent. I 
have nothing really to say against the street cars. But they 
do not fill the place of cabs. 



194 NORTH AMERICA. 

There are, however, public carriages, roomy vehicles dragged 
by two horses, clean and nice, and very well suited to ladies 
visiting the city. But they have none of the attributes of the 
cab. As a rule they are not to be found standing about. They 
are very slow. They are very dear. A dollar an hour is the 
regular charge ; but one cannot regulate one's motion by the 
hour. Going out to dinner and back costs two dollars, over a 
distance which in London would cost two shillings. As a rule, 
the cost is four times that of a cab ; and the rapidity half that 
of a cab. Under these circumstances I think I am justified in 
saying that there is no mode of getting about in New York to 
see anything. \ 

And now as to the other charge against New York, of tl^eir » 
being nothing to see. How should there be anything there to 
see of general interest ? In other large cities, cities as large in 
name as New York, there are works of art, fine buildings, ruins, 
ancient churches, picturesque costumes, and the tombs of cele- 
brated men. But in New York there are none of these things. 
Art has not yet grown u}) there. One or two fine figures by 
Crawford are in the town, — especially that of th^^-goxro wing- 
Indian at the rooms of the Historical Society ; but art is a lux^ 
ury in a city which follows but slowly on the heels of wealth 
and civilization. Of fine buildings, — which indeed are com- 
prised in art, — there are none deserving special praise or re- 
mark. It might well have been that New York should ere 
this have graced herself with something grand in architecture ; 
but she has not done so. Some good architectural eifect there 
is, and much architectural comfort. Of ruins of course there 
can be none ; none at least of such ruins as travellers admire, 
though perhaps some of that sort Avhich disgraces rather than 
decorates. Churches there are plenty, but none that are an- 
cient. The costume is the same as our own ; and I need hardly 
say that it is not picturesque. And the time for the tombs of 
celebrated men has not yet come. A great man's ashes are 
hardly of value till they have all but ceased to exist. 

The visitor to New York must seek his gratification and ob- 
tain his instruction from the habits and manners of men. The 
American, though he dresses like an Englishman, and eats roast 
beef with a silver fork, — or sometimes with a steel knife, — as 
does an Englishman, is not like an Englishman in his mind, in 
his aspirations, in his tastes, or in his politics. In his mind 
he is quicker, more universally intelligent, more ambitious of 
general knowledge, less indulgent of stupidity and ignorance in 
others, harder, sharper, brighter with the surface brightness of 



NEW YORK. 195 

Steel, than is an Englishman ; but he is more brittle, less endur- 
ing, less malleable, and I think less capable of impressions. 
The mind of the Englishman has more imagination, but that of 
the American more incision. The American is a great ob- 
server, but he observes things material rather than things social 
or picturesque. He is a constant and ready speculator ; but all 
speculations, even those which come of philosophy, are with 
him more or less material. In his aspirations the American is 
more constant than an Englishman, — or I should rather say he 
is more constant in aspiring. Every citizen of the United States 
intends to do something. Every one thinks himself capable of 
some effort. But in his aspirations he is more limited than an 
Englishman. The ambitious American never soars so high as 
the ambitious Englishman. He does not even see u]3 to so 
great a height; and when he has raised himself somewhat 
above the crowd becomes sooner dizzy with his own altitude. 
An American of mark, though always anxious to show his 
mark, is always fearful of a fall. In his tastes the American 
imitates the Frenchman. Who shall dare to say that he is 
wrong, seeing that in general matters of design and luxury the 
French have won for themselves the foremost name? I will 
not say that the American is wrong, but I cannot avoid think- 
ing that he is so. I detest what is called French taste; but 
the world is against me. When I complained to a landlord of 
an hotel out in the West that his furniture was useless ; that I 
could not write at a marble table whose outside rim was curved 
into fantastic shapes ; that a gold clock in my bedroom which 
did not go would give me no aid in washing myself; that a 
heavy, immoveable curtain shut out the light ; and that papier- 
mache chairs with small fluify velvet seats were bad to sit on 
, — he answered me completely by telling me that his house had 
been furnished not in accordance with the taste of England, but 
with that of France. I acknowledged the rebuke, gave up my 
pursuits of literature and cleanliness, and hurried out of the 
house as quickly as I could. All America is now furnishing it- 
self by the rules which guided that hotel-keeper. I do not 
merely allude to actual household furniture, — to chairs, tables, 
and detestable gilt clocks. The taste of America is becoming 
French in its conversation, French in its comforts and French 
ill its discomforts, French in its eating, and French in its dress, 
French in its manners, and will become French in its art. 
There are those who will say that English taste is taking the 
same direction. I do not think so. I strongly hope that it is 
not so. And therefore I say that an Englishman and an Amer- 
ican diifer in their tastes. 



196 NOKTH AMERICA. 

But of all differences between an Englishman and an Ameri- 
can that in politics is the strongest, and the most essential. I 
cannot here, in one paragraph, define that difference with suffi- 
cient clearness to make my definition satisfactory ; but I trust 
that some idea of that difierence may be conveyed by the gen- 
eral tenor of my book. The American and the Englishman are 
both Republicans. The governments of the States and of En- 
gland are probably the two purest republican governments in 
the world. I do not, of course, here mean to say that the gov- 
ernments are more pure than others, but that the systems are 
more absolutely republican. And yet no men can be much 
further asunder in politics than the Englishman and the Amer- 
ican. The American of the present day puts a ballot-box into 
the hands of every citizen and takes his stand upon that and 
that only. It is the duty of an American citizen to vote, and 
when he has voted he need trouble himself no further till the 
time for voting shall come round again. The candidate for 
whom he has voted represents his will, if he have voted with 
the majority, and in that case he has no right to look for fur- 
ther influence. If he have voted with the minority, he lias no 
right to look for any influence at all. In either case he has 
done his political work, and may go about his business till the 
next year or the next two or four years shall have come round. 
The Englishman, on the other hand, will have no ballot-box, 
and is by no means inclined to depend exclusively upon voters 
or upon voting. As far as voting can show it, he desires to 
get the sense of the country ; but he does not think that that 
sense will be shown by universal suffrage. He thinks that 
property amounting to a thousand pounds Vvill show more of 
that sense than property amounting to a hundred ; but he will 
not on that account go to w^ork and apportion votes to wealth. 
He thinks that the educated can show more of that sense than 
the uneducated ; but he does not therefore lay down any rule 
about reading, writing, and arithmetic, or apportion votes to 
learning. He prefers that all these opinions of his shall bring 
themselves out and operate by their own intrinsic weight. Nor 
does he at all confine himself to voting in his anxiety to get 
the sense of the country. He takes it in any w^ay that it will 
show itself, uses it for what it is worth, — or perhaps for more 
than it is worth, — and welds it into that gigantic lever by which 
the political action of the country is moved. Every man in 
Great Britain, whether he possess any actual vote or no, can 
do that which is tantamount to voting every day of his life, 
by the mere expression of his opinion. Public opinion in Amer- 



NEW YOEK. 197 

ica has hitherto been nothing, unless it has managed to express 
itself by a majority of ballot-boxes. Public opinion in England 
is everything, let votes go as they may. Let the people want 
a measure, and there is no doubt of their obtaining it. Only 
the people must want it ; — as they did want Catholic emanci- 
pation, reform, and corn-law repeal ; — and as they would want 
war if it were brought home to them that their country was 
insulted. 

In attempting to describe this difference in the political ac- 
tion of the two countries, I am very far from taking all praise 
for England or throwing any reproach on the States. The po- 
litical action of the States is undoubtedly the more logical and 
the clearer. That indeed of EnHand is so illosrical and so little 
clear that it would be quite impossible for any other nation to 
assume it, merely by resolving to do so. Whereas the i^olit- 
ical action of the States might be assumed by any nation to- 
morrow, and all its strength might be carried across the water 
in a few written rules as are the prescriptions of a physician or 
the regulations of an infirmary. With us the thing has grown 
of habit, has been fostered by tradition, has crept up uncared 
for and in some parts unnoticed. It can be written in no book, 
can be described in no words, can be copied by no statesmen, 
and I almost believe can be understood by no people but that 
to whose peculiar uses it has been adapted. 

In speaking as I have here done of American taste and Amer- 
ican politics I must allude to a special class of Americans Avho 
are to be met more generally in New York than elsewhere, — 
men who are educated, who have generally travelled, who are 
almost always agreeable, but who as regards their politics are 
to me the most objectionable of all men. As regards taste they 
are objectionable to me also. But that is a small thing ; and 
as they are quite as likely to be right, as I am I will say nothing 
against their taste. But in politics it seems to me that these 
men have fallen into the bitterest and perhaps into the basest 
of errors. Of the man who begins his life with mean political 
ideas, having sucked them in with his mother's milk, there may 
be some hope. The evil is at any rate the fault of his forefa- 
thers rather than of himself. But who can have hope of him 
wdio having been throAvn by birth and fortune into the running 
river of free political activity, has allowed himself to be drifted 
into the stagnant level of general political servility? There 
are very many such Americans. They call themselves repub- 
licans, and sneer at the idea of a limited monarchy, but they 
declare that there is no republic so safe, so equal for all men, 



198 NOETII AMERICA. 

SO purely democratic as that now existing in France. Under 
the French empire all men are equal. There is no aristocracy ; 
no oligarchy ; no overshadowing of the little by the great. One 
superior is admitted ; — admitted on earth, as a superior is also 
admitted in heaven. Under him everything is level, and — pro- 
vided he be not impeded — everything is free. He knows how 
to rule, and the nation, allowing him the privilege of doing so, 
can go along its course safely ; — can eat, drink, and be merry. 
If few men can rise high, so also can few men fall low. Polit- 
ical equality is the one thing desirable in a commonwealth, and 
by this arrangement political equality is obtained. Such is the 
modern creed of many an educated republican of the States. 

To me it seems that such a political state is about the vilest 
to which a man can descend. It amounts to a tacit abandon- 
ment of the struggle which men are making for political truth 
and political beneficence, in order that bread and meat may be 
eaten in peace during the score of years or so that are at tlie 
moment passing over us. The politicians of this class have 
decided for themselves that the summmn honxmi is to be found 
in bread and the circus games. If they be free to eat, free to 
rest, free to sleep, free to drink little cups of coffee while the 
world passes before them on a boulevard, they have that free- 
dom which they covet. But equality is necessary as well as 
freedom. There must be no towering trees in this parterre to 
overshadow the clipped shrubs, and destroy the uniformity of 
a growth which should never mount more than two feet above 
the earth. The equality of this politician would forbid any to 
rise above him instead of inviting all to rise up to him. It is 
the equality of fear and of selfishness, and not the equality of 
courage and philanthropy. And brotherhood too must be in- 
voked, — fraternity as we may better call it in the jargon of the 
school. Such politicians tell one much of fraternity, and de- 
fine it too. It consists in a general raising of the hat to all 
mankind ; in a daily walk that never hurries itself into a jos- 
tling trot, inconvenient to passengers on the pavement ; — in a 
placid voice, a soft smile, and a small cup of coffee on a boule- 
vard. It means all this, but I could never find that it meant 
any more. There is a nation for which one is almost driven 
to think that such political aspirations as these are suitable; 
but that nation is certainly not the States of America. 

And yet one finds many American gentlemen who have al- 
lowed themselves to be drifted into such a theory. They have 
begun the world as republican citizens, and as such they must 
go on. But in their travels and their studies, and in the luxu- 



NEW YORK. 199 

ry of their life, they have learned to dislike the rowdiness of 
their country's politics. They want things to be soft and easy 
— as republican as you please, but with as little noise as possi- 
ble. The President is there for four years. Why not elect him 
for eight, for twelve, or for life ? — for eternity if it were possi- 
ble to find one who could continue to live ? It is to this way 
of thinking that Americans are driven, when the polish of Eu- 
rope has made the roughness of their own elections odious to 
them. 

*' Have you seen any of our great institootions, sir ?" That 
of course is a question, which is put to every Englishman who 
has visited New York, and the Englishman who intends to 
say that he has seen New York, should visit many of them. I 
went to schools, hospitals, lunatic asylums, institutes for deaf 
and dumb, water works, historical societies, telegraph offices, 
and large commercial establishments. I rather think that I did 
my work in a thorough and conscientious manner, and I owe 
much gratitude to those who guided me on such occasions. 
Perhaps I ought to describe all these institutions ; but were I 
to do so, I fear that I should inflict fifty or sixty very dull pages 
on my readers. If I could make all that I saw as clear and in- 
telligible to others as it was made to me who saw it, I might do 
sonft good. But I know that I should fail. I marvelled much 
at the developed intelligence of a room full of deaf and dumb 
pupils, and was greatly astonished at the performance of one 
special girl, who seemed to be brighter and quicker, and more 
rapidly easy with her pen than girls generally are who can hear 
and talk ; but I cannot convey my enthusiasm to others. On 
such a subject a writer may be correct, may be exhaustive, may 
be statistically great ; but he can hardly be entertaining, and 
the chances are that he will not be instructive. 

In all such matters, however, New York is pre-eminently 
great. All through the States suftering humanity receives so 
much attention that humanity can hardly be said to suffer. The 
daily recurring boast of " our glorious institootions, sir," always 
provokes the ridicule of an Englishman. The words have be- 
come ridiculous, and it would, I think, be well for the nation if 
the term " Institution" could be excluded from its vocabulary. 
But, in truth, they are glorious. The country in this respect 
boasts, but it has done that which justifies a boast. The ar- 
rangements for supplying New York with water are magnifi- 
cent. The drainage of the new part of the city is excellent. 
The hospitals are almost alluring. The lunatic asylum which I 
saw was perfect, — though I did not feel obhged to the resident 



200 NORTH AMERICA. 

physician for introducing me to all the worst patients as coun- 
trymen of my own. " An English lady, Mr. TroUope. I'll iu- 
introduce you. Quite a hopeless case. Two old women. 
They've been here fifty years. They're English. Another gen- 
tleman from England, Mr. Trollope. A very interesting case ! 
Confirmed inebriety." 

And as to the schools, it is almost impossible to mention 
them with too high a praise. I am speaking here specially of 
New York, though I might say the same of Boston, or of all 
New England. I do not know any contrast that would be 
more surprising to an EngUshman, up to that moment igno- 
rant of the matter, than that which he would find by visiting 
first of all a free school in London, and then a free school in 
New York. If he would also learn the number of children 
that are educated gratuitously in each of the two cities, and 
also the number in each Avhich altogether lack education, he 
would, if susceptible of statistics, be surprised also at that. 
But seeing and hearing are always more efiective than mere 
figures. The female pupil at a free school in London is, as a 
rule, either a ragged pauper, or a charity girl, if not degraded 
at least stigmatized by the badges and dress of the Charity. 
We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a fairly 
correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to 
them. We see the result afterwards when the same girls be- 
come our servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters. 
The female pupil at a free school in New York is neither a 
pauper nor a charity girl. She is dressed with the utmost de- 
cency. She is perfectly cleanly. In speaking to her, you can- 
not in any degree guess whether her father has a dollar a day, 
or three thousand dollars a year. Nor will you be enabled to 
guess by the manner in which her associates treat her. As re- 
gards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though 
her father were in all respects your equal. As to the amount 
of her knowledge, I fairly confess that it is terrific. When, in 
the first room which I visited, a slight slim creature was had 
up before me to explain to me the properties of the hypothe- 
nuse I fairly confess that, as regards education, I backed down, 
and that I resolved to confine my criticisms to manner, dress, 
and general behaviour. In the next room I was more at my 
ease, finding that ancient Roman history was on the tapis. 
" Why did the Romans run away with the Sabine women ?" 
asked the mistress, herself a pretty woman of about three-and- 
twenty. "Because they were pretty," simpered out a little 
girl with a cherry mouth. The answer did not give complete 



NEW YORK. 201 

satisfaction; and then followed a somewhat abstruse explana- 
tion on the subject of pojDulation. It was all done with good 
faith and a serious intent, and showed what it was intended to 
show, — that the girls there educated had in truth reached the 
consideration of important subjects, and that they were leagues 
beyond that terrible repetition of A B C, to which, I fear, that 
most of our free metropolitan schools are still necessarily con- 
fined. You and I, reader, were we called on to superintend 
the education of girls of sixteen, might not select as favourite 
points either the hypothenuse, or the ancient methods of pop- 
ulating young colonies. There may be, and to us on the Eu- 
ropean side of the Atlantic there will be, a certain amount of 
absurdity in the transatlantic idea that all knowledge is knowl- 
edge, and that it should be imparted if it be not knowledge of 
evil. But as to the general result, no fair-minded man or wo- 
man can have a doubt. That the lads and girls in these schools 
are excellently educated comes home as a fact to the mind of 
any one who will look into the subject. That girl could not 
have got as far as the hypothenuse without a competent and 
abiding knowledge of much that is very far beyond the outside 
limits of what such girls know with us. It was at least mani- 
fest in the other examination that the girls knew as well as I 
did who were the Romans, and who were the Sabine women. 
That all this is of use, was shown in the very gestures and 
bearings of the girl. Emollit mores, as Colonel Newcombe 
used to say. That young woman whom I had watched while 
she cooked her husband's dinner upon the banks of the Missis- 
sippi, had doubtless learned all about the Sabine women, and 
I feel assured that she cooked her husband's dinner all the bet- 
ter for that knowledge, — and faced the hardships of the world 
with a better front than she would have done had she been ig- 
norant on the subject. 

In order to make a comparison between the schools of Lon- 
don and those of New York, I have called them both free 
schools. They are in fact more free in New York than they 
are in London, because in ISTew York every boy and girl, let his 
parentage be what it may, can attend these schools without any 
payment. Thus an education as good as the American mind 
can compass, prepared with every care, carried on by highly 
paid tutors, under ample surveillance, provided with all that is 
most excellent in the way of rooms, desks, books, charts, maps, 
and implements, is brought actually within the reach of every- 
body. I need not point out to Englishmen how different is the 
nature of schools in London. It must not, however, be sup- 

12 



202 NOETH AMEEICA. 

posed that these are charity schools. Such is not their nature. 
Let us say Avhat we may as to the beauty of charity as a vir- 
tue, the recipient of charity in its customary sense among us is 
ever more or less degraded by the position. In the States that 
has been fully understood, and the schools to which I allude 
are carefully preserved from any such taint. Throughout the 
States a separate tax is levied for the maintenance of these 
schools, and as the tax-payer supports them, he is of course en- 
titled to the advantage which they confer. The child of the 
non-tax-payer is also entitled, and to him the boon, if strictly 
analysed, will come in the shape of a charity. But under the 
system as it is arranged, this is not analysed. It is understood 
that the school is open to all in the ward to which it belongs, 
and no inquiry is made whether the pupil's parent has or has 
not paid anything towards the school's support. I found this 
theory carried out so far that at the deaf and dumb school, 
where some of the poorer children are wholly provided by the 
institution, care is taken to clothe them in dresses of different 
colours and different make, in order that nothing may attach 
to them which has the appearance of a badge. Political econ- 
omists will see something of evil in this. But philanthropists 
will see very much that is good. 

It is not without a purpose that I have given this somewhat 
glowing account of a girls' school in New York so soon after 
my little picture of New York women, as they behave them- 
selves in the streets and street cars. It will, of course, be said 
that those women of whom I have spoken, by no means in terms 
of admiration, are the very girls whose education has been so 
excellent. This of course is so ; but I beg to remark that I 
have by no means said that an excellent school education will 
produce all female excellences. The fact, I take it is this, — 
that seeing how high in the scale these girls have been raised, 
one is anxious that they should be raised higher. One is sur- 
prised at their pert vulgarity and hideous airs, not because they 
are so low in our general estimation but because they are so 
high. Women of the same class in London are humble enough, 
and therefore rarely offend us who are squeamish. They show 
by their gestures that they hardly think themselves good enough 
to sit by us ; they apologise for their presence ; they conceive 
it to be their duty to be lowly in their gestures. The question 
is which is best, the crouching and crawling, or the impudent 
unattractive self-composure. Not, my reader, which action on 
her part may the better conduce to my^ comfort or to yours ! 
That is by no means the question. Which is the better for the 



NEW YORK. 203 

woman herself? That I take it is the point to be decided. 
That there is something better than either we shall all agree ; — 
but to my thinking the crouching aud crawling is the lowest 
type of all. 

At that school I saw some five or six hundred girls collected 
in one room, and heard them sing. The singing was very 
pretty, and it was all very nice ; but I own that I Avas rather 
startled, and to tell the truth somewhat abashed, when I was 
invited to " say a ijew words to them." No idea of such a sug- 
gestion had dawned upon me, and I felt myself quite at a loss. 
To be called up before five hundred men is bad enough, but 
how much worse before that number of girls ! What could I 
say but that they were all very pretty ? As far as I can re- 
member I did say that and nothing else. Very pretty they 
were, and neatly dressed, and attractive ; but among them all 
there was not a pair of rosy cheeks. How should there be, 
when every room in the building w^as heated up to the condi- 
tion of an oven by those damnable hot-air pipes ! 

In England a taste for very large shops has come np during 
the last twenty years. A firm is not doing a good business, 
or at any rate a distinguished business, unless he can assert in 
his trade card that he occupies at least half a dozen houses — 
Nos. 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, and 110. The old way of paying 
for what you want over the counter is gone; and when you 
buy a yard of tape or a new carriage, — for either of which ar- 
ticles you will probably visit the same establishment, — you go 
through about the same amount of ceremony as when you sell 
a thousand pounds out of the stocks in propria persona. But 
all this is still farther exaggerated in New York. Mr. Stewart's 
store there is perhaps the handsomest institution in the city, 
and his hall of audience for new carpets is a magnificent saloon. 
" You have nothing like that in England," my friend said to 
me as he walked me through it in triumph. " I wish we had no- 
thing approaching to it," I answered. For I confess to a liking 
for the old-fashioned private shops. Harper's establishment for 
the manufacture and sale of books is also very wonderful. 
Everything is done on the premises, down to the very colour- 
ing of the paper which lines the covers, and places the gilding 
on their backs. The firm prints, engraves, electroplates, sews, 
binds, publishes, and sells wholesale and retail. I have no 
doubt that the authors have rooms in the attics where the 
other slight initiatory step is taken towards the j^roduction 
of literature. 

New York is built upon an island, which is I believe about 



204 NORTH AMERICA. 

ten miles long, counting from the southern point at the Battery 
up to Carmansville, to which place the city is presumed to ex- 
tend northwards. This island is called Manhattan, — a name 
which I have always thought would have been more graceful 
for the city than that of New York. It is formed by the Sound 
or East river, which divides the continent from Long Island, 
by the Hudson river which runs into the Sound or rather joins 
it at the city foot, and by a small stream called the Haarlem river 
which runs out of the Hudson and meanders away into the 
Sound at the north of the city, thus cutting the city off from 
the main land. The breadth of the island does not much ex- 
ceed two miles, and therefore the city is long, and not capable 
of extension in point of breadth. In its old days it clustered 
itself round about the Point, and stretched itself up from there 
along the quays of the two waters. The streets down in this 
part of the town are devious enough, twisting themselves about 
with delightful irregularity; but as the city grew there came 
the taste for parallelograms, and the upper streets are rectangu- 
lar and numbered. Broadway, the street of New York with 
which the world is generally best acquainted, begins at the 
southern j^oint of the town and goes northward through it. 
For some two miles and a half it walks away in a straight line, 
and then it turns to the left towards the Hudson, and becomes in 
fact a continuation of another street called the Bowery, which 
comes up in a devious course from the south-east extremity of 
the island. From that time Broadway never again takes a 
straight course, but crosses the various Avenues in an oblique 
direction till it becomes the Bloomingdale road, and under 
that name takes itself out of town. There are eleven so-called 
Avenues, which descend in absolutely straight lines from the 
northern, and at present unsettled, extremity of the new town, 
making their way southward till they lose themselves among 
the old streets. These are called First Avenue, Second Ave- 
nue, and so on. The town had already progressed two miles 
up northwards from the Battery before it had caught the par- 
allelogrammic fever from Philadelphia, for at about that dis- 
tance we find "First Street." First Street runs across the 
Avenues from water to water, and then Second Street. I will 
not name them all, seeing that they go up to 154th Street! 
They do so at least on the map, and I believe on the lamp- 
posts. But the houses are not yet built in order beyond 50th 
or 60th Street. The other hundred streets, each of two miles 
long, with the Avenues, which are mostly unoccupied for four 
or live miles, is the ground over which the young "New York- 



NEW YORK. 205 

ers are to spread themselves. I do not in the least doubt that 
they will occupy it all, and that 154th Street will find itself too 
narrow a boundary for the population. 

I have said that there was some good architectural effect in 
"New York, and I alluded chiefly to that of the Fifth Avenue. 
The Fifth Avenue is the Belgrave Square, the Park Lane, and 
the Pall Mall of New York. It is certainly a very fine street. 
The houses in it are magnificent, not having that aristocratic 
look which some of our detached London residences enjoy, or 
the palatial appearance of an old-fashioned hotel in Paris, but 
an air of comfortable luxury and commercial wealth which is 
not excelled by the best houses of any other town that I know. 
They are houses, not hotels or palaces ; but they are very roomy 
houses, with every luxury that complete finish can give them. 
Many of them cover large spaces of ground, and their rent will 
sometimes go up as high as 800/. and 1000/. a year. Generally 
the best of these houses are owned by those who live in them, 
and rent is not therefore paid. But this is not always the case, 
and the sums named above may be taken as expressing their 
value. In England a man should have a very large income indeed 
who could afford to pay 1000/. a year for his house in London. 
Such a one would as a matter of course have an establishment in 
the country, and be an Earl or a Duke or a millionaire. But 
it is different in New York. The resident there shows his 
wealth chiefly by his house, and though he may probably have 
a villa at Newport or a box somewhere up the Hudson he has 
no second establishment. Such a house therefore will not rep- 
resent a total expenditure of above 4,000/. a year. 

There are churches on each side of Fifth Avenue, — perhaps 
five or six within sight at one time, — which add much to the 
beauty of the street. They are well-built, and in fairly good 
taste. These, added to the general well-being and splendid 
comfort of the place, give it an effect better than the archi- 
tecture of the individual houses would seem to warrant. I 
own that I have enjoyed the vista as I have walked np and 
down Fifth Avenue, and have felt that the city had a right to 
be proud of its Avealth. But the greatness and beauty and 
glory of wealth have on such occasions been all in all with 
me. I know no great man, no celebrated statesman, no phil- 
anthropist of pecuHar note who has lived in Fifth Avenue. 
That gentleman on the right made a milUon of dollars by in- 
venting a shirt-collar ; this one on the left electrified the world 
by a lotion ; as to the gentleman at the corner there, — there 
are rumours about him and the Cuban slave-trade ; but my in- 



206 NOllTH AMEEICA. 

formant by no meaus knows that tliey are true. Such are the 
aristocracy of Fifth Avenue. I can only say that if I could 
make a million dollars by a lotion, I should certainly be right to 
live in such a house as one of those. 

The suburbs of New York are, by the nature of the locali- 
ties, divided from the city by water. New Jersey and Hobo- 
ken are on the other side of the Hudson, and in another State. 
Williamsburgh and Brooklyn are in Long Island, which is a 
part of the State of New York. But these places are as easily 
reached as Lambeth is reached from Westminster. Steam fer- 
ries ply every three or four minutes, and into these boats coaches, 
carts, and waggons of any size or weight are driven. In fact 
they make no other stoppage to the commerce than that occa- 
sioned by the payment of a few cents. Such payment no doubt 
is a stoppage, and therefore it is that New Jersey, Brooklyn, 
and Williamsburgh are, at any rate in appearance, very dull 
and uninviting. They are, however, very populous. Many 
of the quieter citizens prefer to live there ; and I am told that 
the Brooklyn tea-parties consider themselves to be, in aBSthetic 
feeling, very much ahead of anything of the kind in the more 
opulent centres of the city. In beauty of scenery Staten 
Island is very much the prettiest of the suburbs of New 
York. The view from the hill side in Staten Island down upon 
New York harbour is very lovely. It is the only really good 
view of that magnificent harbour which I have been able to 
find. As for appreciating such beauty when one is entering a 
port from sea, or leaving it for sea, I do not believe in any such 
power. The ship creeps up or creeps out while the mind is 
engaged on other matters. The passenger is uneasy either 
Avith hopes or fears ; and thenihe grease of the engines oflfends 
one's nostrils. But it is worth the tourist's while to look down 
upon New York harbour from the hill side in Staten Island. 
When I was there. Fort Lafayette looked black in the centre 
of the channel, and we knew that it was crowded with the 
victims of secession. Fort Tompkins was being built, to guard 
the pass, — worthy of a name of richer sound; and Fort some- 
thing else was bristling with new canon. Fort Hamilton, on 
Long Island, opposite, Avas frowning at us ; and immediately 
around us a regiment of volunteers was receiving regimental 
stocks and boots from the hands of its officers. Everything 
Avas bristling with Avar ; and one could not but think that not 
in this Avay had Ncav York raised herself so quickly to her 
present greatness. 

But the glory of New York is the Central Park ; — its glory 



I 



NEW YORK. 207 

in the mind of all New Yorkers of the present day. The first 
question asked of you is whether 3^011 have seen the Central 
Park, and the second is as to what you think of it. It does 
not do to say simply that it is fine, grand, beautiful, and mirac- 
ulous. You must swear by cock and pie that it is more fine, 
more grand, more beautiful, more miraculous than anything 
else of the kind anywhere. Here you encounter, in its most 
annoying form, that necessity for eulogiuni which presses you 
everywhere. For, in truth, taken as it is at present, the Cen- 
tral Park is not fine, nor grand, nor beautiful. As to the mir- 
acle, let that pass. It is perhaps as miraculous as some other 
great latter-day miracles. 

But the Central Park is a very great fact, and affords a 
strong additional proof of the sense and energy of the people. 
It is very large, being over three miles long, and about three 
quarters of a mile in breadth. When it was found that New 
York was extending itself, and becoming one of the largest 
cities of the world, a space was selected between Fifth and 
Seventh Avenues, immediately outside the limits of the city as 
then built, but nearly in the centre of the city as it is intended 
to be built. The ground around it became at once of great 
value ; and I do not doubt that the present fashion of the Fifth 
Avenue about Twentieth Street will in course of time move 
itself up to the Fifth Avenue as it looks, or will look, over the 
Park at Seventieth, Eightieth, and Ninetieth Streets. The 
great waterworks of the city bring the Croton River, whence 
New York is supplied, by an aqueduct over the Haarlem river 
into an enormous reservoir just above the Park; and hence it 
has come to pass that there will be water not only for sanitary 
and useful purposes, but also for ornament. At present the 
Park, to English eyes, seems to be all road. The trees are not 
grown up, and the new embankments, and new lakes, and new 
ditches, and new paths give to the place anything but a pic- 
turesque appearance. The Central Park is good for what it 
will be, rather than for what it is. The summer heat is so 
very great that I doubt much whether the people of New 
York will ever enjoy such verdure as our parks show. But 
there will be a pleasant assemblage of walks and water-works, 
with fresh air, and fine shrubs and flowers, immediately within 
the reach of the citizens. All that art and energy can do will 
be done, and the Central Park doubtless will become one of 
the great glories of New York. When I was expected to de- 
clare that St. James's Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Ken- 
sington Gardens, altogether, were nothing to it, I confess that 
I could only remain mute. 



208 NOETII AMERICA. 

Those who desire to learn what are the secrets of society in 
ISTew York, I would refer to the Potiphar Papers. The Poti- 
phar Papers are perhaps not as well known in England as they 
deserve to be. They were published, I think, as much as seven 
or eight years ago ; but are probably as true now as they were 
then. What I saw of society in N'ew York was quiet and 
pleasant enough ; but doubtless I did not climb into that circle 
in which Mrs. Potiphar held so distinguished a position. It 
may be true that gentlemen habitually throw fragments of 
their supper and remnants of their wine on to their host's car- 
pets ; but if so I did not see it. 

As I progress in my work I feel that duty will call upon me 
to write a separate chapter on hotels in general, and I will not, 
therefore, here say much about those in New York. I am in- 
clined to think that few towns in the w^orld, if any, afford on 
the whole better accommodation, but there are many in which 
the accommodation is cheaper. Of the railways also I ought 
to say something. The fact respecting them which is most re- 
markable is that of their being continued into the centre of 
the town through the streets. The cars are not dragged 
through the city by locomotive engines, but by horses ; the 
pace therefore is slow, but the convenience to travellers in be- 
ing brought nearer to the centre of trade must be much felt. 
It is as though passengers from Liverpool and passengers from 
Bristol were carried on from Euston Square and Paddington 
along the New Road, Portland Place, and Regent Street to 
Pall Mall, or up the City Road to the Bank. As a general 
rule, however, the railways, railway cars, and all about them 
are ill-managed. They are monopolies, and the public, through 
the press, has no restraining power upon them as it has in En- 
gland. A parcel sent by express over a distance of forty miles 
will not be delivered within twenty-four hours. I once made 
my plaint on this subject at the bar or office of an hotel, and 
was told that no remonstrance was of avail. " It is a monop- 
oly," the man told me, " and if we say anything, we are told 
that if we do not like it we need not use it." In railway mat- 
ters and postal matters time and punctuality are not valued in 
the States as they are with us, and the public seem to acknowl- 
edge that they must put up with defects, — that they must grin 
and bear them in America, as the public no doubt do in Aus- 
tria where such affairs are managed by a government bureau. 

In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of the population 
of JSTew York, and I cannot end it without remarking that out 
of that population more than one-eighth is composed of Ger- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 209 

mans. It is, I believe, computed that there are about 120,000 
Germans in the city, and that only two other German cities in 
the world, Vienna and Berlin, have a larger German popula- 
tion than New York. The Germans are good citizens and 
thriving men, and are to be found prospering all over the 
northern and w^estern parts of the Union. It seems that they 
are excellently well adapted to colonization, though they have 
in no instance become the dominant people in a colony, or car- 
ried with them their own language or their own laws. The 
French have done so in Algeria, in some of the West India 
islands, and quite as essentially into Lower Canada, where their 
language and laws still prevail. And yet it is, I think, beyond 
doubt that the French are not good colonists, as are the Ger- 
mans. 

Of the ultimate destiny of New York as one of the ruling 
commercial cities of the world, it is, I think, impossible to 
doubt. Whetlier or no it will ever equal London in popula- 
tion I will not pretend to say. Even should it do so, should 
its numbers so increase as to enable it to say that it had done 
so, the question could not very well be settled. When it 
comes to pass that an assemblage of men in one so-called city 
have to be counted by millions, there arises the impossibility 
of defining the limits of that city, and of saying who belong to 
it and who do not. An arbitrary line may be drawn, but that 
arbitrary line, though perhaps false when drawn as including 
too much, soon becomes more false as including too little. 
Ealing, Acton, Fulham, Putney, Norwood, Sydenham, Black- 
heath, Woolwich, Greenwich, Stratford, Highgate, and Hamp- 
stead, are, in truth, component parts of London, and very 
shortly Brighton will be as much so. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 

As New York is the most populous State of the Union, hav- 
ing the largest representation in Congress, — on which account 
it has been called the Empire State, — I propose to mention, as 
shortly as may be, the nature of its separate Constitution as a 
State. Of course it will be understood that the constitutions 
of the difierent States are by no means the same. They have 
been arranged according to the judgment of the different peo- 
ple concerned, and have been altered from time to time to suit 
such altered judgment. But as the States together form one 



210 NORTH AMERICA. 

nation, and on sncli matters as foreign affairs, war, cnstoms, and 
post-office regulations, are bound together as much as are the 
English counties, it is, of course, necessary that the constitution 
of each should in most matters assimilate itself to those of the 
others. These constitutions are very much alike. A Govern- 
or, with two houses of legislature, generally called the Senate 
and the House of Representatives, exists in each State. In the 
State of New York the lower house is called the Assembly. In 
most States the Governor is elected annually; but in some 
States for two years, as in ISTew York. In Pennsylvania he is 
elected for three years. The House of Kepresentatives or the 
Assembly is, I think, always elected for one session only; but 
as, in many of the States, the Legislature only sits once in two 
years, the election recurs of course at the same interval. The 
franchise in all the States is nearly universal, but in no State is 
it perfectly so. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other 
officers are elected by vote of the people as well as the mem- 
bers of the Legislature. Of course it will be nnderstood that 
each State makes laws for itself, — that they are in nowise de- 
pendent on the Congress assembled at Washington for their 
laws, — unless for laws which refer to matters between the 
United States as a nation and other nations, or between one 
State and another. Each State declares with what punishment 
crimes shall be visited ; what taxes shall be levied for the use 
of the State; what laws shall be passed as to education ; what 
shall be the State judiciary. With reference to the judiciary, 
however, it must be understood, that the United States as a 
nation have separate national law courts before which come all 
cases litigated between State and State, and all cases which do 
not belong in every respect to any one individual State. In a 
subsequent chapter I will endeavour to explain this more fully. 
In endeavouring to understand the constitution of the United 
States it is essentially necessary that we should remember that 
we have always to deal with two different political arrange- 
ments, — that which refers to the nation as a whole, and that 
which belongs to each State as a separate governing power in 
itself. What is law in one State is not law in another. Never- 
theless there is a very great likeness throughout these various 
constitutions ; and any political student who shall have thor- 
oughly mastered one, will not have much to learn in mastering 
the others. 

This State, now called New York, was first settled by the 
Dutch in 1614, on Manhattan Island. They established a gov- 
ernment in 1629, under the name of the New Netherlands. In 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YOEK. 211 

1664^Charles II. granted the province to Lis brother, James II., 
Jthen*Duke of York, and possession was taken of the country on 
his behalf by one Colonel Nichols. In 1673 it was recaptured 
by the Dutch, but they could not hold it, and the Duke of 
York again took possession by patent. A legislative body 
was first assembled during the reign of Charles II., in 1683; 
from which it will be seen that parliamentary representation 
was introduced into the American colonies at a very early date. 
The declaration of independence was made by the revolted col- 
onies in I'Z'ze, and in 1777 the first constitution was adopted by 
the State of ISTew York. In 1822 this was changed for anoth- 
er ; and the one of which I now purport to state some of the 
details was brought into action in 1847. In this constitution 
there is a provision that it shall be overhauled and remodelled, 
if needs be, once in twenty years. Article XIII. Sec. 2. — " At 
the general election to be held in 1866, and in each twentieth 
year thereafter, the question, ' Shall there be a convention to 
revise the Constitution and amend the same ?' shall be decided 
by the electors qualified to vote for members of the Legislature." 
So that the New Yorkers cannot be twitted Avith the presump- 
tion of finality in reference to their legislative arrangements. 

The present constitution begins wdth declaring the inviola- 
bility of trial by jury and of habeas corpus, — "unless when, in 
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its 
suspension." It does not say by whom it may be suspended, 
or who is to judge of the public safety, but, at any rate, it may 
be presumed that such suspension was supposed to come from 
the powers of the State which enacted the law. At the pres- 
ent moment the habeas corpus is suspended in New York, and 
this suspension has proceeded not from the powers of the State, 
but from the Federal Government, without the sanction even 
of the Federal Congress. 

" Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sen- 
timents on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that 
right ; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the 
liberty of speech or of the press." Art. I. Sec. 8. But at the 
present moment liberty of speech and of the press is utterly ab- 
rogated in the State of New York, as it is in other States. I 
mention this not as a reproach against either the State or the 
Federal Government, but to show how vain all laws are for the 
protection of such rights. If they be not protected by the 
feelings of the people, — if the people are at any time, or from 
any cause, willing to abandon such privileges, no written laws 
will preserve them. 



212 NORTH AMERICA. 

lu Art. I. Sec. 14, there is a proviso that no land — land, that 
is, used for agricultural purposes — shall be let on lease for a 
longer period than twelve years. " No lease or grant of agri- 
cultural land for a longer j)eriod than twelve years hereafter 
made, in which shall be reserved any rent or service of any 
kind, shall be valid." I do not understand the intended virtue 
of this proviso, but it shows very clearly how difierent are the 
practices with reference to land in England and America. 
Farmers in the States almost always are the owners of the 
land which they farm, and such tenures as those, by which the 
occupiers of land generally hold their farms w^ith us, are almost 
imknown. There is no such relation as that of landlord and 
tenant as regards agricultural holdings. 

Every male citizen of New York may vote who is twenty- 
one, who has been a citizen for ten days, who has lived in the 
State for a year, and for four months in the county in which 
he votes. He can vote for all " officers that now are, or here- 
after may be, elective by the people." Art. II. Sec. 1. " But," 
the section goes on to say, " no man of colour, unless he shall 
have been for three years a citizen of the State, and for one 
year next preceding any election shall have been possessed of 
a freehold estate of the value of 250 dollars (50^.), and shall 
have been actually rated, and paid a tax thereon, shall be enti- 
tled to vote at such election." This is the only embargo with 
which universal suifrage is laden in the State of New York. 

The third article provides for the election of the Senate and 
the Assembly. The Senate consists of thirty-two members. 
And it may here be remarked that large as is the State of New 
York, and great as is its population, its Senate is less numerous 
than that of many other States. In Massachusetts, for instance, 
there are forty senators, though the population of Massachu- 
setts is barely one third that of New York. In Virginia there 
are fifty senators, whereas the free population is not one third 
of that of New York. As a consequence the Senate of New 
York is said to be filled with men of a higher class than are 
generally found in the Senates of other States. Then follows 
in the article a list of the districts which are to return the Sen- 
ators. These districts consist of one, two, three, or in one case 
four counties, according to the population. 

The article does not give the number of members of the 
Lower House, nor does it even state what amount of popula- 
tion shall be held as entitled to a member. It merely provides 
i\)7 the division of the State into districts which shall contain 
an equal number, not of population, but of voters. The House 
of Assembly does consist of 128 members. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YOEK. 213 

It is then stipulated that every member of both houses shall 
receive three dollars a day, or twelve shillings, for their serv- 
ices during the sitting of the legislature ; but this sum is never 
to exceed 300 dollars, or sixty pounds, in one year, unless an 
extra Session be called. There is also an allowance for the 
travelling expenses of members. It is, I presume, generally 
known that the members of the Congress at Washington are 
all paid, and that the same is the case with reference to the 
legislatures of all the States. 

]^o member of the New York legislature can also be a mem- 
ber of the Washington Congress, or hold any civil or military 
office under the general States Government. 

A majority of each House must be present, or as the article 
says, " shall constitute a quorum to do business." Each House 
is to keep a journal of its proceedings. The doors are to be 
open, — except when the public welfare shall require secrecy. 
A singular proviso this, in a country boasting so much of free- 
dom ! For no speech or debate in either House shall the leg- 
islature be called in question in any other place. The legisla- 
ture assembles on the first Tuesday in January, and sits for 
about three months. Its seat is at Albany. 

The executive power, (Art. IV.) is to be vested in a Govern- 
or and a Lieutenant-Governor, both of whom shall be chosen 
for two years. The Governor must be a citizen of the United 
States, must be thirty years of age, and have lived for the last 
four years in the State. He is to be commander-in-chief of the 
military and naval forces of the State, — as is the President of 
those of the Union. I see that this is also the case in inland 
States, which one would say can have no navies. And with 
reference to some States it is enacted that the Governor is 
commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and militia, showing that 
some army over and beyond the militia may be kept by the 
State. In Tennessee, which is an inland State, it is enacted 
that the Governor shall be " commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of this State, and of the militia, except when they 
shall be called into the service of the United States." In Ohio 
the same is the case, except that there is no mention of militia. 
In New York there is no proviso with reference to the service 
of the United States. I mention this as it bears with some 
strength on the question of the right of secession, and indicates 
the jealousy of the individual States with reference to the Fed- 
eral Government. The Governor can convene extra Sessions.- 
of one House or of both. He makes a message to the legisla- 
ture when it meets, — a sort of Queen's speech ; and he receives 



214 NORTH AMERICA. 

for his services a compensation, to be established by law. In 
New York this amounts to 800/. a year. In some States this 
is as low as 200/., and 300/. In Virginia it is 1000/. In Cali- 
fornia, 1200/. 

The Governor can pardon, except in cases of treason. He 
has also a veto npon all bills sent up by the legislature. If he 
exercises this veto he returns the bill to the legislature with 
his reasons for so doing. If the bill on reconsideration by the 
Houses be again passed by a majority of two thirds in each 
House, it becomes law in spite of the Governor's veto. The 
veto of the President at Washington is of the same nature. 
Such are the powers of the Governor. But though they are 
very full, the Governor of each State does not practically exer- 
cise any great political power, nor is he, even politically, a great 
man. You might live in a State during the whole term of his 
government and hardly hear of him. There is vested in him 
by the language of the constitution a much wider power than 
that intrusted to the Governors of our colonies. But in our 
colonies everybody talks, and thinks, and knows about the 
Governor. As far as the limits of the colony the Governor is 
a great man. But this is not the case with reference to the 
Governors in the different States. 

The next article provides that the Governor's ministers, viz., 
the Secretary of State, the Comptroller, Treasurer, and Attor- 
ney-General, shall be chosen every two years at a general elec- 
tion. In this respect the State constitution differs from that 
of the national constitution. The President at Washington 
names his ov/n ministers, — subject to the approbation of the 
Senate. He makes many other appointments with the same 
limitation. As regards these nominations in general, the Sen- 
ate, I believe, is not slow to interfere ; but with reference to 
the ministers it is understood that the names sent in by the 
President shall stand. Of the Secretary of State, Comptroller, 
&c., belonging to the different States, and who are elected by 
the people, in a general way one never hears. No doubt they 
attend th^ir offices and take their pay, but they are not politi- 
cal personages. " 

The next article. No. VI., refers to the Judiciary, and is very 
complicated. After considerable study I have failed to under- 
stand it. The judges are elected by vote, and remain in office 
for, I believe, a term of eight years. In Sect. 20 of this article 
it is provided that — " No judicial officer, except Justices of the 
Peace, shall receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of 
office." How pleasantly this enactment must sound in the 
ears of the justices of the peace. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 215 

Article VII. refers to fiscal matters, and is more especially 
interesting as showing how greatly the State of New York has 
depended on its canals for its wealth. These canals are the 
property of the State ; and by this article it seems to be pro- 
vided that they shall not only maintain themselves, but main- 
tain to a considerable extent the State expenditure also, and 
stand in lieu of taxation. It is provided, section 6, that the 
"legislature shall not sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any of 
the canals of the State ; but that they shall remain the proper- 
ty of the State, and under its management for ever." But in 
spite of its canals the State does not seem to be doing very well, 
for I see that in 1860, its income Avas 4,780,000 dollars, and its 
expenditure 5,100,000, whereas its debt was 32,500,000 dollars. 
Of all the States, Pennsylvania is the most indebted, Virginia 
is the second on the list, and New York the third. New 
Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Delaware, and Texas, owe 
no State debts. All the other State ships have taken in ballast. 

The militia is supposed to consist of all men capable of bear- 
ing arms, under forty-five years of age. But no one need be 
enrolled, who from scruples of conscience is averse to bearing 
arms. At the present moment such scruples do not seem to 
be very general. Then follows, in Article XI., a detailed enact- 
ment as to the choosing of militia ofiicers. It may be perhaps 
sufiicient to say that the privates are to choose the captains and 
the subalterns; the captains and subalterns are to choose the 
field ofiicers ; and the field ofiicers the brigadier-generals and 
inspectors of brigade. The Governor, however, with the con- 
sent of the Senate shall nominate all major-generals. Now that 
real soldiers have unfortunately become necessary the above 
plan has not been found to work well. 

Such is the Constitution of the State of New York, which 
has been intended to work and does work quite separately from 
that of the United States. It will be seen that the purport has 
been to make it as widely democratic as possible, — to provide 
that all power of all description shall come directly from the 
people, and that such power shall return to the people at short 
intervals. The Senate and the Governor each remain for two 
years, but not for the same two years. If a new Senate com- 
mence its work in 1861, a new Governor will come in in 1862. 
But, nevertheless, there is in the form of Government as thus 
established an absence of that close and immediate responsibil- 
ity which attends our ministers. When a man has been voted 
in, it seems that responsibility is over for the period of the re- 
quired service. He has been chosen, and the country which 



216 NOETH AMERICA. 

has chosen him is to trust that he will do his best. I do not 
know that this matters much with reference to the legislature 
or governments of the different States, for their State legisla- 
tures and governments are but puny powers ; but ;n the legis- 
lature and government at Washington it does matter very 
much. But I shall have another opportunity of speaking on 
that subject. 

Nothing has struck me so much in America as the fact that 
these State legislatures are puny powers. The absence of any 
tidings Avhatever of their doings across the Avater is a proof of 
this. Who has heard of the legislature of New York or of 
Massachusetts? It is boasted here that their insignificance is 
a sign of the well-being of the people ; — that the smallness of 
the i^ower necessary for carrying on the machine shows how 
beautifully the machine is organised, and how well it works. 
" It is better to have little governors than great governors," an 
American said to me once. "It is our glory that we know how 
to live without having great men over us to rule us." That 
glory, if ever it were a glory, has come to an end. It seems to 
me that all these troubles have come upon the States because 
they have not placed high men in high places. The less of 
laws and the less of control the better, providing a people can 
go right with few laws and little control. One may say that 
no laws and no control would be best of all, — provided that 
none were needed. But this is not exactly the position of the 
American people. 

The two professions of law-making and of governing have 
become unfashionable, low m estimation, and of no repute in 
the States. The municipal powers of the cities have not fallen 
into the hands of the leading men. The word politician has 
come to bear the meaning of political adventurer and almost of 
political blackleg. If A calls B a politician A intends to vilify 
B by so calhng him. Whether or no the best citizens of a State 
will ever be induced to serve in the State legislature by a no- 
bler consideration than that of pay, or by a higher tone of polit- 
ical morals than that now existing, I cannot say. It seems to 
me that some great decrease in the numbers of the State legis- 
lators should be a first step towards such a consummation.- 
There are not many men in each State who can afiford to give 
up two or three months of the year to the State service for 
nothing ; but it may be presumed that in each State there are 
a few. Those who are induced to devote their time by the 
payment of 60/., can hardly be the men most fitted for the pur- 
pose of legislation. It certainly has seemed to me that the 



BOSTOJS'. 217 

members of the State legislatures aucl of the State governments 
are not held in that respect and treated with that confidence to 
which, in the eyes of an Englishman, such functionaries should 
be held as entitled. ' , 



CHAPTER XVL 

BOSTON. 

From N'ew York we returned to Boston by Hartford, the 
capital, or one of the capitals of Connecticut. This proud lit- 
tie State is composed of two old provinces, of which Hartford 
and New Haven were the two metropolitan towns. Indeed 
there was Si third colony called Saybrook, which was joined to 
Hartfurd. As neither of the two could of course give way 
when Hartford and New Haven were made into one, the houses 
of legislature and the seat of government are changed about, 
year by year. Connecticut is a very proud little State, and 
has a j^leasant legend of its own stanchness in the old colonial 
days. In 1662 the colonies were united, and a charter was 
given to them by Charles 11. But some years later, in 1686, 
when the bad days of James II. had come, this charter was 
considered to be too liberal, and order was given that it should 
be suspended. One Sir Edmund Andross had been appointed 
governor of all New England, and sent word from Boston to 
Connecticut that the charter itself should be given up to him. 
This the men of Connecticut refused to do. Whereupon Sir 
Edmund with a military following presented himself at their 
assembly, declared their governing powers to be dissolved, and 
after much palaver caused the charter itself to be laid upon the 
table before him. The discussion had been long, having lasted 
through the day into the night, and the room had been hghted 
with candles. On a sudden each light disappeared, and Sir 
Edmund with his followers were in the dark. As a matter of 
course, when the light was restored the charter was gone, and 
Sir Edmund, the governor-general, was baffled, as all govern- 
ors-general and all Sir Edmunds alw'ays are in such cases. The 
charter was gone, a gallant Captain Wadsworth having carried 
it off and hidden it in an oak tree. The charter was renewed 
when William HI. came to the throne, and now hangs triumph- 
antly in the State House at Hartford. The charter oak has, 
alas ! succumbed to the weather, but was standing a few years 
since. The men of Hartford are very proud of their charter, 
and regard it as the parent of their existing liberties quite as 



218 NORTH AMEEICA. 

much as though no national revolution of their own had inter- 
vened. 

And indeed the ISTorthern States of the Union, especially 
those of Xew England, refer all their liberties to the old char- 
ters which they held from the mother-country. They rebelled, 
as they themselves would seem to say, and set themselves up 
as a separate people, not because the mother-country had re- 
fused to them by law sufficient liberty and sufficient self-con- 
trol, but because the mother-country infringed the liberties and 
powers of self-control which she herself had given. The moth- 
er-country, so these States declare, had acted the part of Sir 
Edmund Andross, had endeavoured to take away their charters. 
So they also put out the lights, and took themselves to an oak 
tree of their own, — which is still standing, though winds from 
the infernal regions are now battering its branches. Long may 
it stand ! 

Whether the mother-country did or did not infringe the 
charters she had given, I will not here inquire. As to the na- 
ture of those alleged infringements, are they not written down 
to the number of twenty-seven in the Declaration of Independ- 
ence ? I have taken the liberty of appending this Declaration 
to the end of my book, and the twenty seven paragraphs may 
all be seen. They mostly begin with He. "He" has done 
this, and " He" has done that. The " He" is poor George HI., 
whose twenty-seven mortal sins against his transatlantic colo- 
nies are thus recapitulated. It would avail nothing to argue 
now whether those deeds were sins or virtues ; nor w^ould it 
have availed then. The child had grown up and was strong, 
and chose to go alone into the world. The young bird was 
fledged, and flew away. Poor George III. with his cackling 
was certainly not efficacious in restraining such a flight. But 
it is gratifying to see how this new people, when they had it 
in their power to change all their laws, to throw themselves 
upon any Utopian theory that the folly of a wild philanthropy 
could devise, to discard as abominable every vestige of English 
rule and English power, — it is gratifying to see that when they 
could have done all this, they did not do so, but preferred to 
cling to things English. Their old colonial limits were still to 
be the borders of their States. Their old charters were still 
to be regarded as the sources from whence their State powers 
had come. The old laws were to remain in force. The prece- 
dents of the English courts were to be held as legal precedents 
in the courts of the new nation, — and are now so held. It was 
still to be England, — but England without a King making his 



I 



BOSTOX. 219 

last struggle for political power. This was the idea of the peo- 
ple, and this was their feeling ; and that idea has been carried 
out, and that feeling has remained. 

In the constitution of the State of New York nothing is said 
about the religion of the people. It was regarded as a subject 
witli which the constitution had no concern whatever. But as 
soon as we come among the stricter people of Xew England 
Ave find that the constitution-makers have not been able abso- 
lutely to ignore the subject. In Connecticut it is enjoined tliat 
as it is the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being, and 
their right to render that worship in the mode most consistent 
Avith their consciences, no person shall be by law compelled to 
join or be classed with any religious association. The line of 
argument is hardly logical, the conclusion not being in accord- 
ance with, or hanging on the first of the two premises. But 
nevertheless the meaning is clear. In a free country no man 
shall be made to worship after any special fashion ; but it is 
decreed by the constitution that every man is bound by duty 
to worship after some fashion. The article then goes on to say 
how they who do Avorship are to be taxed for the support of 
their peculiar church. I am not quite clear whether the Ncav 
Yorkers have not managed this difficulty Avith greater success. 
When Ave come to the old Bay State, — to Massachusetts, — Ave 
find the Christian religion spoken of in the Constitution as that 
Avhich in some one of its forms should receive the adherence 
of every good Christian. 

Hartford is a pleasant little town, Avith English -looking 
houses, and an English-looking country around it. Here, as 
everywhere through the States, one is struck by the size and 
comfort of the residences. I sojourned there at the house of a 
friend, and could find no limit to the number of spacious sitting- 
rooms Avhicli it contained. The modest dining-room and draAV- 
ing-room Avhich suffice Avith us for men of seven or eight hun- 
dred a year Avould be regarded as A'ery mean accommodation 
by persons of similar incomes in the States. 

I found that Hartford Avas all alive with trade, and that 
Avages Avere high, because there are there two factories for the 
manufacture of arms. Colt's pistols come from Hartford, as do 
also Sharpe's rifles. Wherever arms can be prepared, or gun- 
poAvder; Avhere clothes or blankets fit for soldiers can be made, 
or tents or standards, or things appertaining in any way to 
warfare, there trade Avas still brisk. No being is more costly 
in his requirements than' a soldier, and no soldier so costly as 
the American. He must eat and drink of the best, and have 



220 NOETH AMEKICA. 

good boots and warm bedding, and good shelter. There were 
during the Christmas of 1861 above half a million of soldiers so 
to be provided, — the President, in his message made in Decem- 
ber to Congress, declared the number to be above six hundred 
thousand — and therefore in such places as Hartford trade was 
very brisk. I went over the rifle factory, and was shown ev- 
erything, but I do not know that I brought away much with 
me that was worth any reader's attention. „The best of rifles, 
I have no doubt, were being made with the greatest rapidity, 
and all were sent to the army as soon as finished. I saw some 
murderous-looking weapons, with swords attached to them in- 
stead of bayonets, but have since been told by soldiers that the 
old-fashioned bayonet is thought to be more serviceable. 

Immediately on my arrival in Boston I heard that Mr. Em- 
erson was going to lecture at the Tremont Hall on the subject 
of the war, and I resolved to go and hear him. I was ac- 
quainted with Mr. Emerson, and by reputation knew him well. 
Among us in England he is regarded as transcendental, and 
perhaps even as mystic in his philosophy. His 'Representa- 
tive Men' is the work by which he is best known on our side- 
of the water, and I have heard some readers declare that they 
could not quite understand Mr. Emerson's 'Representative 
Men.' For myself, I confess that I had broken down over 
some portions of that book. Since I had become acquainted 
with him I had read jothers of his writings, especially his book 
on England, and had found that he improved greatly on ac- 
quaintance. I think that he has confined his mysticism to the 
book above named. In conversation he is very clear, and by 
no means above the small practical things of the world. He 
would, I fancy, know as well what interest he ought to receive 
for his money as though he were no philosopher ; and I am in- 
clined to think that if he held land he would make his hay while 
the sun shone, as might any common farmer. Before I had met 
Mr. Emerson, when my idea of him was formed simply on the 
'Representative Men,' I should have thought that a lecture 
from him on the war would have taken his hearers all among 
the clouds. As it was, I still had my doubts, and was inclined 
to fear that a subject AY^^ich could only be handled usefully at 
such a time before a large audience by a combination of com- 
mon sense, high principles, and eloquence, would hardly be safe 
in Mr. Emerson's hands. I did not doubt the high principles, 
but feared much that there would be a lack of common sense. 
So many have talked on that subject, and have shown so great 
a lack of common sense ! As to the eloquence, that might be 
there, or might not. 



BOSTON. 221 

Mr. Emerson is a Massachusetts man, very well known in 
Boston, and a great crowd was collected to hear him. I sup- 
pose there were some three thousand persons in the room. I 
confess that when he took his place before us my prejudices 
were against him. The matter in hand required no philosophy. 
It required common sense, and the very best of common sense. 
It demanded that he should be impassioned, for of what interest 
can any address be on a matter of public politics without pas- 
sion ? But it demanded that the passion should be winnowed, 
and free from all rhodomontade. I fancied what might be said 
on such a subject as to that overlauded star-spangled banner, 
and how the star-spangled flag would look when wrapped in a 
mist of mystic Platonism. 

But from the beginning to the end there was nothing mystic 
— no Platonism ; and, if I remember rightly, the star-spangled 
banner Avas altogether omitted. To the national eagle he did 
allude. " Your American eagle," he said, "is very well. Pro- 
tect it here and abroad. But beware of the American pea- 
cock." He gave an account of the war from the beginning, 
showing how it had arisen, and how it had been conducted; 
and he did so with admirable simplicity and truth. He thought 
the North were right about the war ; and as I thought so also, 
I was not called upon to disagree with him. He was terse and 
perspicuous in his sentences, practical in his advice, and above 
all things, true in what he said to his audience of themselves. 
They who know America will understand how hard it is for a 
public man in the States to practise such truth in his addresses. 
Fluid compliments and high-flown national eulogium are ex- 
pected. In this instance none were forthcoming. The North 
had risen with patriotism to make this eflbrt, and it was now 
warned that in doing so it was simply doing its national duty. 
And then came the subject of slavery. I had been told that 
Mr. Emerson was an abolitionist, and knew that I must disa- 
gree with him on that head, if on no other. To me it has al- 
ways seemed that to mix up the question of general abolition 
with this war must be the work of a man too ignorant to un- 
derstand the real subject of the war, or too false to his country 
to regard it. Throughout the whole lecture I was waiting for 
Mr. Emerson's abolition doctrine, but no abolition doctrine 
came. The words abolition and compensation were mentioned, 
and then there was an end of the subject. If Mr. Emerson be 
an abolitionist he expressed his views very mildly on that oc- 
casion. On the whole the lecture Avas excellent, and that little 
advice about the peacock was in itself worth an hour's atten- 
tion. 



222 NORTH AMERICA. 

That practice of lecturing is " quite an institution" in the 
States. So it is in England, my readers will say. But in Eng- 
land it is done in a different way, with a different object, and 
with much less of result. With us, if I am not mistaken, lec- 
tures are mostly given gratuitously by the lecturer. They are 
got up here and there with some philanthropical object, and 
in the hope that an hour at the disposal of young men and wo- 
men may be rescued from idleness. The subjects chosen are 
social, literary, philanthropic, romantic, geographical, scientific, 
religious, — anything rather than political. The lecture-rooms 
are not usually filled to overflowing, and there is often a ques- 
tion whether the real good achieved is worth the trouble taken. 
The most popular lectures are given by big people, whose pres- 
ence is likely to be attractive ; and the whole thing, I fear we 
must confess, is not pre-eminently successful. In the Northern 
States of America the matter stands on a very different footing. 
Lectures there are more popular than either theatres or concerts. 
Enormous halls are built for them. Tickets for long courses 
are taken with avidity. Very large sums are paid to popular 
lecturers, so that the profession is lucrative, — more so, I am 
given to understand, than is the cognate profession of litera- 
ture. The whole thing is done in great style. Music is intro- 
duced. The lecturer stands on a large raised platform, on 
which sit around him the bald and hoary-headed and superla- 
tively wise. Ladies come in large numl3ers ; especially those 
who aspire to soar above the frivolities of the world. Politics 
is the subject most popular, and most general. The men and 
women of Boston could no more do without their lectures, than 
those of Paris could do without their theatres. It is the dec- 
orous diversion of the best ordered of her citizens. The fast 
young men go to clubs, and the fast young women to dances, 
as fast young men and women do in other places that are 
wicked ; but lecturing is the favourite diversion of the steady- 
minded Bostonian. After all, I do not know that the result is 
very good. It does not seem that much will be gained by such 
lectures on either side of the Atlantic, — except that respectable 
killing of an evening which might otherwise be killed less res- 
pectably. It is but an industrious idleness, an attempt at a 
royal road to information, that habit of attending lectures. Let 
any man or woman say what he has brought away from any 
such attendance. It is attractive, that idea of being studious 
without any of the labour of study ; but I fear it is illusive. If 
an evening can be so passed without ennui, I believe that that 
may be regarded as the best result to be gained. But then it 



i 



BOSTON. 223 

SO often happens that the evening is not passed without ennui! 
Of course in saying this, I am not alluding to lectures given in 
special places as a course of special study. Medical lectures, 
no doubt, are a necessary j^art of medical education. As many 
as two or three thousand often attend these political lectures in 
Boston, but I do not know whether on that account the popu- 
lar subjects are much better understood. Nevertheless I re- 
solved to hear more, hoping that I might in that way teach 
myself to understand what were the popular politics in New 
England. Whether or no I may have learned this in any other 
way I do not perhaps know ; but at any rate I did not learn it 
in this way. 

The next lecture which I attended was also given in the Tre- 
mont Hall, and on this occasion also the subject of the war was 
to be treated. The special treachery of the rebels was, I think, 
the matter to be taken in hand. On this occasion also the 
room was full, and my hopes of a pleasant hour ran high. For 
some fifteen* minutes I listened, and I am bound to say that the 
gentleman discoursed in excellent English. He was master of 
that wonderful fluency which is peculiarly the gift of an Ameri- 
can. He went on from one sentence to another with rhythmic 
tones and unerring pronunciation. He never faltered, never re-" 
peated his words, never fell into those vile half-muttered hems 
and haws by Avhich an Englishman in such a position so gener- 
ally betrays his timidity. But during the whole time of my 
remaining in the room he did not give expression to a single 
thought. He went on from one soft platitude to another, and 
uttered words from which I would defy any one of his audience 
to carry away with them anything. And yet it seemed to me 
that his audience was satisiied. I was not satisfied, and man- 
aged to escape out of the room. 

The next lecturer to whom I listened was Mr. Everett. Mr. 
Everett's reputation as an orator is very great, and I was espe- 
cially anxious to hear him. I had long since known that his 
power of delivery was very marvellous ; that his tones, elocu- 
tion, and action were all great ; and that he was able to com- 
mand the minds and sympathies of his audience in a remarkable 
manner. His subject also was the war; — or rather the causes 
of the war, and its qualification. Had the North given to the 
South cause of provocation ? Had the Soitth been fair and 
honest in its dealings with the North ? Had any compromise 
been possible by which the war might have been avoided, and 
the rights and dignity of the North preserved ? Seeing that Mr. 
Everett is a Northern man and was lecturing to a Boston audi- 



224 NORTH AMERICA. 

ence, one knew well how these questions would be answered, 
but the manner of the answering would be everything. This 
lecture was given at Roxboro', one of the suburbs of Boston. 
So I went out to Roxboro' with a party, and found myself hon- 
oured by being placed on the platform among the bald-headed 
ones and the superlatively wise. This privilege is naturally 
gratifying, but it entails on him who is so gratified the incon- 
venience of sitting at the lecturer's back, whereas it is perhaps 
better for the listener to be before his face. 

I could not but be amused by one little scenic incident. 
When we all went upon the platform, some one proposed that 
the clergymen should lead the way out of the waiting-room in 
which we bald-headed ones and superlatively wise were assem- 
bled. But to this the manager of the affair demurred. He 
wanted the clergymen for a purpose, he said. And so the pro- 
fane ones led the way, and the clergymen, of whom there might 
be some six or seven, clustered in around the lecturer at last. 
Early in his discourse Mr. Everett told us what it ^as that the 
country needed at this period of her trial. Patriotism, courage, 
the bravery of the men, the good wishes of the women, tbe self- 
denial of all, — "and," continued the lectm-er, turning to his im- 
mediate neighbours, " the prayers of these holy men whom I 
see around me." It had not been for nothing that the clergy- 
men were detained. 

Mr. Everett lectures without any book or paper before him, 
and continues from first to last as though the words came from 
him on the spur of the moment. It is known, however, that 
it is his practice to prepare his orations with great care and 
commit them entirely to memory, as does an actor. Indeed 
he repeats the same lecture over and over again, I am told, 
without the change of a word or of an action. I did not like 
Mr. Everett's lecture. I did not like what he said, or the seem- 
ing spirit in which it was framed. But I am bound to admit 
that his power of oratory is very wonderful. Those among 
his countrymen who have criticised his manner in my hearing 
have said that he is too florid, that there is an affectation in 
the motion of his hands, and that the intended pathos of his 
voice sometimes approaches too near the precipice over which 
the fall is so deep and rapid, and at the bottom of which lies 
absolute ridicule. Judging for myself, I did not find it so. 
My position for seeing was not good, but my ear was not of- 
fended. Critics also should bear in mind that an orator does 
not speak chiefly to them or for their approval. He who 
writes, or speaks, or sings for thousands, must write, speak, or 



BOSTON. 225 

sing as those thousands would have him. That to a dainty 
connoisseur will be false music, which to the general ear shall 
be accounted as the perfection of harmony. An eloquence al- 
together suited to the fastidious and hypercritical, would prob- 
ably fail to carry off the hearts and interest the sympathies of 
the young and eager. As regards manners, tone, and choice 
of words, I think that the oratory of Mr. Everett places him 
very high. His skill in his work is perfect. He never falls 
back upon a word. He never repeats himself His voice is 
always perfectly under command. As for hesitation or timid- 
ity, the days for those failings have long passed by with him. 
When he makes a point, he makes it well, and drives it home 
to the intelligence of every one before him. Even that appeal 
to the holy men around him sounded well, — or would have 
done so had I not been present at that little arrangement in 
the ante-room. On the audience at large it was manifestly 
effective. 

But nevertheless the lecture gave me but a poor idea of Mr. 
Everett as a politician, though it made me regard him highly 
as an orator. It was impossible not to perceive that he was 
anxious to utter the sentiments of the audience rather than his 
own ; — that he was making himself an echo, a powerful and 
harmonious echo of what he conceived to be public opinion in 
Boston at that moment; — that he was neither leading nor 
teaching the people before him, but allowing himself to be led 
by them, so that he might best play his present part for their 
delectation. "He was neither bold nor honest, as Emerson had 
been, and I could not but feel that every tyro of a politician 
before him would thus recognize his want of boldness and of 
honesty. As a statesman, or as a critic of statecraft and of 
other statesmen, he is wanting in backbone. For many years 
Mr. Everett has been not even inimical to southern politics and 
southern courses, nor was he among those who, during the last 
eight years previous to Mr. Lincoln's election, fought the bat- 
tle for northern principles. I do not say that on this account 
he is now false to advocate the war. But he cannot carry men 
with him when, at his age, he advocates it by arguments op- 
posed to the tenour of his long political life. His abuse of the 
South and of southern ideas was as virulent as might be that 
of a young lad now beginning his political career, or of one 
who had through life advocated abolition principles. He heap- 
ed reproaches on poor Virginia, whose position as the chief of 
the border States has given to her hardly the possibihty of 
avoiding a Scylla of ruin on the one side, or a Charybdis of re- 

K2 



22^ NORTH AMERICA. 

bellion on the other. When he spoke as he did of Virginia, 
ridiculing the idea of her sacred soil, even I, Englishman as I 
am, could not but think of Washington, of Jefferson, of Ran- 
dolph, and of Madison. He should not have spoken of Vir- 
ginia as he did speak; for no man could have known better 
Virginia's difficulties. But Virginia was at a discount in Bos- 
ton, and Mr. Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. And 
then he referred to England and to Europe. Mr. Everett has 
been minister to England, and knows the people. He is a stu- 
dent of history, and must, I think, know that England's career 
has not been unhappy or unprosperous. But England also 
was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. Everett was speaking to 
a Boston audience. They are sending us their advice across 
the water, said Mr. Everett. And what is their advice to us ? 
that we should come down from the high place we have built 
for ourselves, and be even as they are. They screech at us 
from the low depths in which they are wallowing in their mis- 
ery, and call on us to join them in their wretchedness. I am 
not quoting Mr. Everett's very words, for I have not them by 
me ; but I am not making them stronger, nor so strong as he 
made them. As I thought of Mr. Everett's reputation, and of 
his years of study, — of his long political life and unsurpassed 
sources of information, — I could not but grieve heartily when 
I heard such w^ords fall from him. I could not but ask myself 
whether it were impossible that under the present circum- 
stances of her constitution this great nation of America should 
produce an honest, high-minded statesman. When Lincoln 
and Hamlin, the existing President and Vice-President of the 
States, were in 1860 as yet but the candidates of the republi- 
can party, Bell and Everett also were the candidates of the old 
whig, conservative party. Their express theory was this, — 
that the question of slavery should not be touched. Their pur- 
pose was to crush agitation and restore harmony by an impar- 
tial balance between the North and South : a tine purpose, — 
the finest of all purposes, had it been practicable. But such a 
course of compromise was now at a discount in Boston, and 
Mr. Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. As an ora- 
tor, Mr. Everett's excellence is, I think, not to be questioned ; 
but as a politician I cannot give him a high rank. 

After that I heard Mr. Wendell Phillips. Of him, too, as an 
orator all the world of Massachusetts speaks Avith great admi- 
ration, and I have no doubt so speaks with justice. He is, 
however, known as the hottest and most impassioned advocate 
of abolition. Not many months since the cause of abolition, 



BOSTON. 227 

as advocated by him, was so unpopular in Boston, that Mr. 
Phillips was compelled to address his audience surrounded by 
a guard of policemen. Of this gentleman, I may at any rate 
say that he is consistent, devoted, and disinterested. He is an 
abolitionist by profession, and seeks to find in every turn of the 
tide of politics some stream on which he may bring himself 
nearer to his object. In the old days, jDrevious to the selection 
of Mr. Lincoln, in days so old that they are now" nearly eighteen 
months past, Mr. Phillips was an anti-Union man. He advoca- 
ted strongly the disseverance of the Union, so that the country 
to which he belonged might have hands clean from the taint of 
slavery. He had probably acknowledged to himself, that while 
the North and South were bound together no hope existed of 
emancipation, but that if the North stood alone the South 
would become too weak to foster and keep alive the " social 
institution." In which, if such were his opinions, I am inclined 
to agree with him. But now he is all for the Union, thinking 
that a victorious North can compel the immediate emancipa- 
tion of southern slaves. As to which I beg to say that I am 
bold to differ from Mr. Phillips altogether. 

It soon became evident to me that Mr. Phillips was unwell, 
and lecturing at a disadvantage. His manner Avas clearly that 
of an accustomed orator, but his voice was weak, and he was 
not up to the effect which he attempted to make. His hearers 
w^ere impatient, repeatedly calling upon him to speak out, and 
on that account I tried hard to feel kindly towards him and his 
lecture. But I must confess that I failed. To me it seemed 
that the doctrine he preached was one of rapine, bloodshed, 
and social destruction. He would call upon the Government 
and upon Congress to enfranchise the slaves at once, — now dur- 
ing the war, — so that the Southern power might be destroyed 
by a concurrence of misfortunes. And he w^ould do so at once, 
on the spur of the moment, fearing lest the South should be be- 
fore him, and themselves emancipate their own bondsmen. I 
have sometimes thought that there is no being so venomous, 
so bloodthirsty as a professed philanthropist ; and that when 
the philanthropist's ardour lies negro-wards, it then assumes the 
deepest dye of venom and bloodthirstiness. There are four 
millions of slaves in the southern States, none of whom have 
any capacity for self-maintenance or self-control. Four mill- 
ions of slaves, with the necessities of children, with the passions 
of men, and the ignorance of savages ! And Mr. Phillips would 
emancipate these at a blow ; would, were it possible for him to 
do so, set them loose upon the soil to tear their masters, de- 



22 S NOETH A31EEICA. 

stroy each other, and make such a hell upon the earth as has nev- 
er even yet come from the uncontrolled j^assions and unsatislied 
wants of men. But Congress cannot do this. All the mem- 
bers of Congress put together cannot, according to the consti- 
tution of the United States, emancipate a single slave in South 
Carolina ; not if they were all unanimous. No emancipation 
in a Slave State can come otherwise than by the legislative en- 
actment of that State. But it was then thought that in this 
coming winter of 1860-61 the action of Congress might be set 
aside. The North possessed an enormous army under the con- 
trol of the President. The South was in rebellion, and the 
President could pronounce, and the army perhaps enforce'the 
confiscation of all property held in slaves. If any who held 
them were not disloyal, the question of compensation might be 
settled afterwards. How those four million slaves should live, 
and how white men should live among them, in some States or 
parts of States not equal to the blacks in number ; — as to that 
Mr. PhiUips did not give us his opinion. 

And Mr. Phillips also could not keep his tongue away from 
the abominations of Englishmen and the miraculous powers of 
his own countrymen. It was on this occasion that he told us 
more than once how Yankees carried brains in their fingers, 
whereas " common people" — alluding by that name to Europe- 
ans — had them only, if at all, inside their brain-pans. And then 
he informed us that Lord Palmerston had always hated Amer- 
ica. Among the Radicals there might be one or two who un- 
derstood and valued the institutions of America, but it was a 
well-known fact that Lord Palmerston was hostile to the coun- 
try. Nothing but hidden enmity, — enmity hidden or not hid- 
den, — could be expected from England. That the people of 
Boston, or of Massachusetts, or of the North generally, should 
feel sore against England is to me intelligible. I know how 
the minds of men are moved in masses to certain feelings, and 
that it ever must be so. Men in common talk are not bound to 
weigh their words, to think, and speculate on their results, and 
be sure of the premises on which their thoughts are founded. 
But it is different with a man who rises before two or three 
thousand of his countrymen to teach and instruct them. After 
that I heard no more political lectures in Boston. 

Of course I visited Bunker's Hill, and went to Lexington 
and Concord. From the top of the monument on Bunker's 
Hill there is a fine view of Boston Harbour, and seen from 
thence the harbour is picturesque. The mouth is crowded 
with islands and jutting necks and promontories ; and though 



ii 



BOSTON. 229 

the shores are in no place rich enough to make the scenery 
grand, the general eifect is good. The monument, however, is 
so constructed that one can hardly get a view through the 
windows at the top of it, and there is no outside gallery round 
it. Immediately below the monument is a marble figure of 
Major Warren, who fell there, — not from the top of the monu- 
ment, as some one was led to believe when informed that on 
that spot the Major had fallen. Bunker's Hill, which is little 
more than a mound, is at Charlestown, — a dull, populous, re- 
spectable, and very unattractive suburb of Boston. 

Bunker's Hill has obtained a considerable name, and is ac- 
counted great in the annals of American history. In England 
we have all heard of Bunker's Hill, and some of us dislike the 
sound as much as Frenchmen do that of Waterloo. In the 
States men talk of Bunker's Hill as Ave may, perhaps, talk of 
Agincourt and such favourite fields. But, after all, little was 
done at Bunker's Hill, and, as far as I can learn, no victory was 
gained there by either party. The road from Boston to the 
town of Concord, on which stands the village of Lexington, is 
the true scene of the earliest and greatest deeds of the men of 
Boston. The monument at Bunker's Hill stands high and 
commands attention, while those at Lexington and Concord 
are very lowly and command no attention. But it is of that 
road and w^hat was done on it that Massachusetts should be 
proud. When the colonists first began to feel that they were 
oppressed, and a half resolve was made to resist that oppression 
by force, they began to collect a few arms and some gunpow- 
der at Concord, a small town about eighteen miles from Bos- 
ton. Of this preparation the English Governor received tidings, 
and determined to send a party of soldiers to seize the arms. 
This he endeavoured to do secretly ; but he was too closely 
watched, and word was sent down over the waters by which 
Boston was then surrounded that the colonists might be pre- 
pared for the soldiers. At that time Boston Neck, as it was 
and is still called, was the only connection between the town 
and the main land, and the road over Boston Neck did not lead 
to Concord. Boats therefore were necessarily used, and there 
was some diificulty in getting the soldiers to the nearest point. 
They made their way, however, to the road, and continued their 
route as far as Lexington without interruption. Here, howev- 
er, they were attacked, and the first blood of that war was shed. 
They shot three or four of the — rebels, I suppose I should in 
strict language call them, and then proceeded on to Concord. 
But at Concord they were stopped and repulsed, and along the 



230 NORTH AMERICA. 

road back from Concord to Lexington they were driven with 
slaughter and dismay. And thus the rebeUion was commenced 
which led to the establishment of a people which, let us En- 
glishmen say and think what we may of them at this present 
moment, has made itself one of the five great nations of the 
earth, and has enabled us to boast that the two out of the five 
who enjoy the greatest liberty and the widest prosperity, speak 
the English language and are known by English names. For 
all that has come and is like to come, I say again, long may that 
honour remain. I could not but feel that that road from Bos- 
ton to Concord deserves a name in the world's history greater, 
l^erhaps, than has yet been given to it. 

Concord is at present to be noted as the residence of Mr. 
Emerson and of Mr. Hawthorne, two of those many men of let- 
ters of whose presence Boston and its neighbourhood have rea- 
son to be proud. Of Mr. Emerson I have already spoken. The 
author of the ' Scarlet Letter' I regard as certainly the first of 
American novelists. I know what men will say of Mr. Cooper, 
— and I also am an admirer of Cooper's novels. But I cannot 
think that Mr. Cooper's powers were equal to those of Mr. 
Hawthorne, though his mode of thought may have been more 
genial, and his choice of subjects more attractive in their day. 
In point of imagination, which, after all, is the novelist's great- 
est gift, I hardly know any living author who can be accounted 
superior to Mr. Hawthorne. 

Very much has, undoubtedly, been done in Boston to carry 
out that theory of Colonel Newcome's — Emollit mores^ by 
which the Colonel meant to signify his opinion that a compe- 
tent knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a taste 
for enjoying those accomplishments, goes very fir towards the 
making of a man, and will by no means mar a gentleman. In 
Boston nearly every man, woman, and child has had his or her 
manners so far softened ; and though they may still occasionally 
be somewhat rough to the outer touch, the inward efiect is 
plainly visible. With us, especially among our agricultural pop- 
ulation, the absence of that inner softening is as visible. 

I went to see a public library in the city, which, if not found- 
ed by Mr. Bates, whose name is so well known in London as 
connected with the house of Messrs. Baring, has been greatly 
enriched by him. It is by his money that it has been enabled 
to do its work. In this library there is a certain number of thou- 
sands of volumes — a great many volumes, as there are in most 
public libraries. There are books of all classes, from ponderous 
imreadable folios, of which learned men know the title-pages, 



BOSTON. 231 

down to the lightest literature. Novels are by no means es- 
chewed, — are rather, if I understood aright, considered as one 
of the staples of the library. From this library any book, ex- 
cepting such rare volumes as in all libraries are considered holy, 
is given out to any inhabitant of Boston, without any payment, 
on presentation of a simple request on a prepared form. In 
point of fact it is a gratuitous circulating library oj^en to all 
Boston, rich or poor, young or old. The books seemed in gen- 
eral to be confided to young children, who came as messengers 
from their fathers and mothers, or brothers and sisters. No 
question whatever is asked, if the applicant is known or the 
place of his residence undoubted. If there be no such knowl- 
edge, or there be any doubt as to the residence, the applicant 
is questioned, the object being to confine the use of the library 
to the bond fide inhabitants of the city. Practically the books 
are given to those who ask for them, whoever they may be. 
Boston contains over 200,000 inhabitants, and all those 200,000 
are entitled to them. Some twenty men and women are kept 
employed from morning to night in carrying on this circulating 
library ; and there is, moreover, attached to the establishment 
a large reading-room supplied with papers and magazines, open 
to the public of Boston on the same terms. 

Of course I asked whether a great many of the books were 
not lost, stolen, and destroyed ; and of course I was told that 
there were no losses, no thefts, and no destruction. As to 
thefts, the librarian did not seem to think that any instance of 
such an occurrence could be found. Among the ])oorer classes 
a book might sometimes be lost wdien they were changing their 
lodgings, but any thing so lost w^as more than replaced by the 
fines. A book is taken out for a week, and if not brought back 
at the end of that week, wdien the loan can be renewed if the 
reader wishes, a fine, I think of two cents, is incurred. The 
children, when too late with the books, bring in the two cents 
as a matter of course, and the sura so collected fully replaces 
all losses. It was all couleur de rose; the librarianesses looked 
very pretty and learned, and, if I remember aright, mostly wore 
spectacles ; the head librarian was enthusiastic ; the nice in- 
structive books were properly dogs-eared ; my own produc- 
tions were in enormous demand ; the call for books over the 
counter was brisk, and the reading-room was full of readers. 

It has, I dare say, occurred to other travellers to remark that 
the proceedings at such institutions, when visited by them on 
their travels, are always rose coloured. It is natural that the 
bright side should be shown to the visitor. It may be that 



232 NOKTH AMERICA. 

many books are called for and returned nnread, that many of 
those taken out are so taken by persons who ought to pay for 
their novels at circulating libraries, that the librarian and libra- 
rianesses get very tired of their long hours of attendance, — for 
I found that they were very long ; — and that many idlers Avarni 
themselves in that reading-room ; nevertheless the fact remains 
— the library is public to all the men and women in Boston, and 
books are given out without payment to all wdio may choose to 
ask for them. Why should not the great Mr. Mudie emulate 
Mr. Bates, and open a library in London on the same system ? 

The librarian took me into one special room, of which he him- 
self kept the key, to show me a present which the library had 
received from the English Government. The room Avas filled 
with volumes of two sizes, all bound alike, containing descrip- 
tions and drawings of all the patents taken out in England. 
According to this Hbrarian such a work would be invaluable as 
to American patents ; but he conceived that the subject had be- 
come too confused to render any such an undertaking possible. 
*' I never allow a single volume to be used for a moment Vv^ith- 
out the presence of myself or one of my assistants," said the 
librarian ; and then he explained to me, when I asked him why 
he was so particular, that the draw^ings would, as a matter of 
course, be cut out and stolen if he omitted his care. " But 
they may be copied," I said. "Yes ; but if Jones merely copies 
one. Smith may come after him and copy it also. Jones will 
probably desire to hinder Smith from having any evidence of 
such a patent." As to the ordinary borrowing and returning 
of books, the poorest labourer's child in Boston might be trust- 
ed as honest ; but when a question of trade came up, of com- 
mercial competition, then the librarian was bound to bethink 
himself that his countrymen are very smart. "I hope," said the 
librarian, " you will let them know in England how grateful we 
are for their present." And I hereby execute that librarian's 
commission. 

I shall always look back to social life in Boston with great 
pleasure. I met there many men and women whom to know 
is a distinction, and with whom to be intimate is a great de- 
light. It was a Puritan city, in which strict old Roundhead 
sentiments and laws used to prevail ; but now-a-days ginger is 
hot in the mouth there, and in spite of the Avar there were cakes 
and ale. There was a law passed in Massachusetts in the old 
days that any girl should be fined and imprisoned who allowed 
a young man to kiss her. That law has now, I think, fallen into 
abeyance, and such matters are regulated in Boston much as 



BOSTON. 233 

they are in other large towns further eastward. It still, I con- 
ceive, calls itself a Puritan city, but it has divested its Puritan- 
ism of austerity, and clings rather to the pohtics and public 
bearing of its old fathers than to their social manners and pris- 
tine severity of intercourse. The young girls are, no doubt, 
much more comfortable under the new dispensation, — and the 
elderly men also, as I fancy. Sunday, as regards the outer 
streets, is sabbatical. But Sunday evenings within doors I al- 
ways found to be, what my friends in that country call " quite 
a good time." It is not the thing in Boston to smoke in the 
streets during the day ; but the wisest, the sagest, and the most 
holy, — even those holy men whom the lecturer saw around him 
— seldom refuse a cigar in the dining-room as soon as the ladies 
have gone. Perhaps even the wicked weed would make its ap- 
pearance before that sad eclipse, thereby postponing, or perhaps 
absolutely annihilating, the melancholy period of widowhood to 
both parties, and would light itself under the very eyes of those 
who in sterner cities will lend no countenance to such lightings. 
Ah me, it was very pleasant ! I confess I like this abandonment 
of the stricter rules of the more decorous world. I fear that 
there is within me an aptitude to the milder debaucheries which 
makes such deviations pleasant. I like to drink and I like to 
smoke, but I do not like to turn women out of the room. Then 
comes the question whether one can have all that one likes to- 
gether. In some small circles in New England I found people 
simple enough to fancy that they could. In Massachusetts the 
Maine Liquor Law is still the law of the land, but, like that other 
law to which I have alluded, it has fallen very much out of use. 
At any rate it had not reached the houses of the gentlemen with 
whom I had the pleasure of making acquaintance. But here I 
must guard myself from being misunderstood. I saw but one 
drunken man through all New England, and he was very re- 
spectable. He was, however, so uncommonly drunk that he 
might be allowed to count for two or three. The Puritans of 
Boston are, of course, simjDle in their habits and simple in their 
expenses. Champagne and canvas-back ducks I found to be 
the provisions most in vogue among those who desired to ad- 
here closely to the manners of their forefathers. Upon the 
whole I found the w^ays of life which had been brought over in 
the 'Mayflower' from the stern sects of England, and preserved 
through the revolutionary war for liberty, to be very pleasant 
ways, and I made up my mind that a Yankee Puritan can be 
an uncommonly pleasant fellow. I wish that some of them did 
not dine so early ; for when a man sits down at half-j^ast two, 



234 NOKTII AMERICA. 

that keeping up of the after-dinner recreations till bedtime be- 
comes hard work. 

In Boston the houses are very spacious and excellent, and 
they are always furnished with those luxuries which it is so 
difficult to introduce into an old house. They have hot and 
cold water pipes into every room, and baths attached to the 
bed-chambers. It is not only that comfort is increased by such 
arrangements, but that much labour is saved. In an old En- 
glish house it will occupy a servant the best part of the day to 
carry water up and down for a large family. Everything also 
is spacious, commodious, and well lighted. I certainly think 
that in house-building the Americans have gone beyond us, 
for even our new houses are not commodious as are theirs. 
One practice which they have in their cities would hardly suit 
our limited London spaces. When the body of the house is 
built, they throw out the dining-room behind. It stands alone, 
as it were, with no other chamber above it, and removed from 
the rest of the house. It is consequently behind the double 
drawing-rooms which form the ground-floor, and is approached 
from them, and also from the back of the hall. The second en- 
trance to the dining-room is thus near the top of the kitchen 
stairs, which no doubt is its proper position. The whole of the 
upper part of the house is thus kept for the private uses of the 
family. To me this plan of building recommended itself as be- 
ing very commodious. 

I found the spirit for the war quite as hot at Boston now (in 
November), if not hotter than it was when I was there ten 
weeks earlier ; and I found also, to my grief, that the feeling 
against England was as strong. I can easily understand how 
difficult it must have been, and still must be, to Englishmen at 
home to understand this, and see how it has come to pass. It 
has not arisen, as I think, from the old jealousy of England. 
It has not sprung from that source which for years has induced 
certain newspapers, especially the ' New York Herald' to vilify 
England. I do not think that the men of New England have 
ever been, as regards this matter, in the same boat with the 
'New York Herald.' But when this war between the North 
and South first broke out, even before there was as yet a war, 
the Northern men had taught themselves to expect what they 
called British sympathy, meaning British encouragement. They 
regarded, and properly regarded, the action of the South as a 
rebellion, and said among themselves that so staid and conserv- 
ative a nation as Great Britain would surely countenance them 
in quelling rebels. If not, — should it come to pass that Great 



BOSTON. 235 

Britain should show no such coimtenfince and sympathy for 
Northern law, if Great Britain did not respond to her friend 
as she Avas expected to respond, then it would appear that 
Cotton was king, at least in British eyes. The war did come, 
and Great Britain regarded the two parties as belligerents, 
standing, as far as she was concerned, on equal grounds. This 
it was tliat first gave rise to that fretful anger against England 
which has gone so far towards ruining the northern cause. 
We know how such passions are swelled by being ventilated, 
and how they are communicated from mind to mind till they 
become national. Politicians — American politicians I here 
mean — have their own future careers ever before their eyes, 
and are driven to make capital where they can. Hence it is 
that such men as Mr. Seward in the cabinet, and Mr. Everett 
out of it, can reconcile it to themselves to speak as they have 
done of England. It was but the other day that Mr. Everett 
spoke in one of his orations of the hope that still existed that 
the flag of the United States might still float over the whole 
continent of North America. What would he say of an En- 
glish statesman who should speak of putting up the Union Jack 
on the State House in Boston ? Such Avords tell for the mo- 
ment on the hearers, and help to gain some slight popularity ; 
but they tell for more than a moment on those who read them 
and remember them. 

And then came the capture of Messrs. Slidell and Mason. I 
was at Boston when those men were taken out of the ' Trent' 
by the ' San Jacinto,' and brought to Fort Warren in Boston 
liarbour. Captain Wilkes was the ofiicer who had made the 
capture, and he immediately was recognized as a hero. He 
was invited to banquets and feted. Speeches were made to 
him as speeches are commonly made to high officers who come 
home after many perils victorious from the wars. His health was 
drunk with great applause, and thanks were voted to him by 
one of the Houses of Congress. It was said that a sword was 
to be given to him, but I do not think that the gift was con- 
summated. Should it not have been a policeman's truncheon ? 
Had he at the best done anything beyond a policeman's work ? 
Of Captain Wilkes no one would complain for doing police- 
man's duty. If his country were satisfied with the manner in 
which he did it, England, if she quarrelled at all, would not 
quarrel with him. It may now and again become the duty of 
a brave officer to do work of so low a calibre. It is a pity that 
an ambitious sailor should find himself told off for so mean a 
task, but the world would know that it is not his fault. No one 



236 NOKTII AMERICA. 

could blame Captain Wilkes for acting policeman on the sens. 
But who ever before heard of giving a man glory for achieve- 
ments so little glorious? How Captain Wilkes must have 
blushed when those speeches were made to him, when that talk 
about the sword came up, when the thanks arrived to him from 
Congress ! An officer receives his country's thanks when he 
has been in great peril, and has borne himself gallantly through 
his danger ; when he has endured the brunt of war, and come 
through it with victory ; when he has exposed himself on be- 
half of his country and singed his epaulets Avith an enemy's 
fire. Captain Wilkes tapped a merchantman on the shoulder 
in the high seas, and told him that his passengers were want- 
ed. In doing tliis he showed no lack of spirit, for it might be 
his duty ; but where was his spirit when he submitted to be 
thanked for such work? 

And then there arose a clamour of justification among the 
lawyers ; judges and ex-judges flew to Wheaton, Phillimore, 
and Lord Stowell. Before twenty-four hours were over, every 
man and every woman in Boston Avere armed with precedents. 
Then there was the burning of the ' Caroline.' England had 
improperly burned the ' Caroline' on Lake Erie, or rather in 
one of the American ports on Lake Erie, and had then begged 
pardon. If the States had been wrong, they would beg par- 
don ; but whether wrong or right, they would not give up Sli- 
dell and Mason. But the lawyers soon waxed stronger. The 
men were manifestly ambassadors, and as such contraband of 
war. Wilkes Avas quite right, only he should have seized the 
vessel also. He was quite right, for though Slidell and Mason 
might not be ambassadors, they were undoubtedly carrying de- 
spatches. In a few hours there began to be a doubt whether 
the men could be ambassadors, because if called ambassadors, 
then the power that sent the embassy must be presumed to be 
recognized. That Captain Wilkes had taken no despatches 
was true ; but the Captain suggested a way out of this difiiculty 
by declaring that he had regarded the two men themselves as 
an incarnated embodiment of despatches. At any rate, they 
were contraband of war. They were going to do an injury to 
the North. It was pretty to hear the charming women of Bos- 
ton, as they became learned in the law of nations: "Wheaton 
is quite clear about it," one young girl said to me. It was the 
first I had ever heard of Wheaton, and so far was obliged to 
knock under. All the world, ladies and lawyers, expressed the 
utmost confidence in the justice of the seizure, but it was clear 
that all the world was in a state of the profoundest nervous 



BOSTON. 237 

anxiety on tlic subject. To me it seemed to be the most sui- 
cidal act that any party in a life-and-death struggle ever com- 
mitted. All Americans on both sides had felt, from the begin- 
ning of the war, that any assistance given by England to one 
or the other would turn the scale. The Government of Mr. 
Lincoln must have learned by this time that England was at 
least true in her neutrality ; that no desire for cotton would 
compel her to give aid to the South as long as she herself was 
not ill-treated by the ISTorth. But it seemed as though Mr. 
Sew^ard, the President's prime minister, had no better Avork on 
hand than that of showing in every way his indiiference as to 
courtesy with England. Insults offered to England would, he 
seemed to think, strengthen his hands. He would let England 
know that he did not care for her. When our minister. Lord 
Lyons, appealed to him regarding the suspension of the habeas 
corpus, Mr. Seward not only answered him with insolence, but 
instantly published his answer in the papers. He instituted a 
system of passports, especially constructed so as to incommode 
Englishmen proceeding from the States across the Atlantic. 
He resolved to make every Englishman in America feel him- 
self in some way punished because England had not assisted 
the North. And now came the arrest of^Slidell and Mason 
out of an English mail-steamer ; and Mr. Seward took care to 
let it be understood that, happen what might, those two men 
should not be given up. 

Nothing during all this time astonished me so much as the 
estimation in which Mr. Seward was then held by his own par- 
ty. It is, perhaps, the worst defect in the Constitution of the 
States, that no incapacity on the part of a minister, no amount 
of condemnation expressed against him by the people or by 
Congress, can put him out of office during the term of the ex- 
isting Presidency. The President can dismiss him ; but it gen- 
erally happens that the President is brought in on a "platform," 
which has already nominated for him his Cabinet as thorougli- 
ly as they have nominated him. Mr. Seward ran Mr. Lincoln 
very hard for the position of candidate for the Presidency on 
the Republican interest. On the second voting of the Repub- 
lican delegates at the Convention at Chicago, Mr. Seward polled 
184 to Mr.Lincoln's 181. But as a clear half of the total num- 
ber of votes was necessary — that is 233 out of 465 — there was 
necessarily a third polling, and Mr. Lincoln won the day. On 
that occasion Mr. Chase and Mr. Cameron, both of whom be- 
came members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, were also candidates 
for the White House on the Republican side. I mention this 



238 NOKTH AMERICA. 

here to show, that though the President can in fact dismiss his 
Ministers, he is in a great manner bound to them, and that a 
Minister in Mr. Seward's position is hardly to be dismissed. 
But from the 1st of November, 1861, till the day on which I 
left the States, I do not think that I heard a good word sjDoken 
of Mr. Seward as a Minister even by one of his own party. 
The Radical or Abolitionist Republicans all abused him. The 
Conservative or Anti-abolition Republicans, to whose party he 
would consider himself as belonging, spoke of him as a mis- 
take. He had been prominent as Senator from New York, and 
had been Governor of the State of New York, but had none of 
the aptitudes of a statesman. He was there, and it was a pity. 
He was not so bad as Mr. Cameron, the Minister for War ; that 
was the best his own party could say for him, even in his own 
State of New York. As to the Democrats, their language re- 
specting him was as harsh as any that I have heard used to- 
wards the Southern leaders. He seemed to have no friend, no 
one who trusted him ; — and yet he was the President's chief 
minister, and seemed to have in his own hands the power of 
mismanaging all foreign relations as he pleased. But, in truth, 
the States of America, great as they are, and much as they 
liave done, have not produced Statesmen. That theory of gov- 
erning by the little men rather than by the great, lias not been 
found to answer, and such follies as those of Mr. Seward have 
been the consequence. 
■ At Boston, and indeed elsewhere, I found that there was 
even then, — at the time of the capture of Mason and Slidell, no 
true conception of the neutrality of England with reference to 
the two parties. When any argument was made, showing that 
England, who had carried those messengers from the South, 
would undoubtedly have also carried messengers from the 
North, the answer always was — " But the Southerners are all 
rebels. Will England regard us, who are by treaty her friend, 
as she does a people that is in rel3ellion against its own govern- 
ment ?" That was the old story over again, and as it was a 
very long story, it Avas hardly of use to go back through all its 
details. But the fact was that unless there had been such ab- 
solute neutrality— such equality between the parties in the eyes 
of England — even Captain Wilkes would not have thought of 
stopping the ' Trent,' or the government at Washington of jus- 
tifying such a proceeding. And it must be remembered that 
the Government at Washington had justified that proceeding. 
The Secretary of the Navy liad distinctly done so in his official 
report ; and that report had been submitted to the President 



BOSTON. 239 

.iiid published b^^ his order. It was because England was neu- 
tral between the North and South tliat Captain Wilkes claimed 
to have the right of seizing those two men. It had been the 
President's intention, some month or so before this affair, to 
send Mr. Everett and other gentlemen over to England with 
objects as regards the North, similar to those which had caused 
the sending of Slidell and Mason with reference to the South. 
What would Mr. Everett have thought had he been refused a 
passage from Dover to Calais, because the carrying of him 
Avould have been towards the South a breach of neutrality ? 
It would never have occurred to him that he could become 
subject to such stoppage. How should we have been abused 
for Southern sympathies had we so acted ? We, forsooth, who 
carry passengers about the world, from China and Australia, 
round to Chili and Peru, who have the charge of the world's 
passengers and letters, and as a nation incur out of our pocket 
annually a loss of some half-million of pounds sterling for the 
privilege of doing so, are to inquire the business of every Amer- 
ican traveller before we let him on board, and be stopped in 
our work if we take anybody on one side whose journeyings 
may be conceived by the other side to be to them prejudicial! 
Not on such terms will Englishmen be Avilling to spread civ- 
ilization across the ocean ! I do not pretend to understand 
Wheaton and Phillimore, or even to have read a single word 
of any international law. I have refused to read any such, 
knowing that it would only confuse and mislead me. But I 
have my common sense to guide me. Two men living in one 
street, quarrel and shy brickbats at each other, and make the 
whole street very uncomfortable. Not only is no one to inter- 
fere witli them, but they are to have the privilege of deciding 
that their brickbats have the right of way, rather than the or- 
dinary intercourse of the neighbourhood ! If that be national 
law, national law must be changed. It might do for some cen- 
turies back, but it cannot do now. Up to this period my sym- 
pathies had been with the North. I thought, and still think, 
that the North had no alternative, that the war had been forced 
upon them, and tliat they had gone about their work with pa- 
triotic energy. But this stopping of an English mail-steamer 
was too much for me. 

What will they do in England ? was now the question. But 
for any knowledge as to that, I had to wait till I reached Wash- 
ington. 



240 NOETH AMEKICA. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. 

The two places of most general interest in the vicinity of 
Boston are Cambridge and Lowell. Cambridge is to Massa- 
chusetts, and, I may almost say, is to all the northern States, 
what Cambridge and Oxford are to England. It is the seat 
of the University which gives the highest education to be at- 
tained by the highest classes in that country. Lowell also is 
in little to Massachusetts and to New England what Manches- 
ter is to us in so great a degree. It is the largest and most 
prosperous cotton-manufacturing town in the States. 

Cambridge is not above three or four miles from Boston. 
Indeed, the town of Cambridge properly so called begins where 
Boston ceases. The Harvard College — that is its name, taken 
from one of its original founders — is reached by horse-cars in 
twenty minutes from the city. An Englishman feels inclined 
to regard the place as a suburb of Boston ; but if he so ex- 
presses himself, he Avill not find favour in the eyes of the men 
of Cambridge. 

The University is not so large as I had expected to find it. 
It consists of Harvard College, as the undergraduates' depart- 
ment, and of professional schools of law, medicine, divinity, and 
science. In a few words that I will say about it I will confine 
myself to Harvard College proper, conceiving that the profes- 
sional schools connected with it have not in themselves any 
special interest. The average number of undergraduates does 
not exceed 450, and these are divided into four classes. The 
average number of degrees taken annually by bachelors of art 
is something under 100. Four years' residence is required for 
a degree, and at the end of that period a degree is given as a 
matter of course if the candidate's conduct has been satisfac- 
tory. When a young man has pursued his studies for that pe- 
riod, going through the required examinations and lectures, he 
is not subjected to any final examination as is the case with a 
candidate for a degree at Oxford and Cambridge. It is, j^er- 
haps, in this respect that the greatest difierence exists between 
the English Universities and Harvard College. With us a 
young man may, I take it, still go through his three or four 
years with a small amount of study. But his doing so does 
not insure him his degree. If he have utterly wasted his time 
he is plucked, and late but heavy punishment comes upon him. 



CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. 241 

At Cambridge in Massachusetts the daily work of the men is 
made more obUgatory ; but if this be gone through with sucli 
diligence as to enable the student to hold his own during the 
four years, he has his degree as a matter of course. There are 
no degrees conferring special honour. A man cannot go out 
" in honours" as he does with us. There are no '' firsts" or 
*' double firsts ;" no " wranglers ;" no " senior opts" or "junior 
opts." Nor are there prizes of fellowships and livings to be 
obtained. It is, I think, evident from this that the greatest in- 
centives to high excellence are wanting at Harvard College. 
There is neither the reward of honour nor of money. There is 
none of that great competition which exists at our Cambridge 
for the high place of Senior Wrangler ; and, consequently, the 
degree of excellence attained is no doubt lower than with us. 
But I conceive that the general level of the University educa- 
tion is higher there than with us ; that a young man is more 
sure of getting his education, and that a smaller percentage of 
men leaves Harvard College utterly uneducated than goes in 
that condition out of Oxford or Cambridge. The education at 
Harvard College is more diversified in its nature, and study is 
more absolutely the business of the place than it is at our Uni- 
versities. 

The expense of education at Harvard College is not much 
lower than at our colleges ; with us there are, no doubt, more 
men who are absolutely extravagant than at Cambridge, Mas- 
sachusetts. The actual authorized expenditure in accordance 
with the rules is only 50^. per annum, i. e. 249 dollars ; but this 
does not, by any means, include everything. Some of the rich- 
er young men may spend as much as 300^. per annum, but the 
largest number vary their expenditure from 100/. to 180/. per 
annum ; and I take it the same thing may be said of our Uni- 
versities. There are many young men at Harvard College of 
very small means. They will live on 70/. per annum, and will 
earn a great portion of that by teaching in the vacations. There 
are thirty-six scholarships attached to the University varying in 
value from 20/. to 60/. per annum ; and there is also a benefi- 
ciary fund for supplying poor scholars with assistance during 
their collegiate education. Many are thus brought up at Cam- 
bridge who have no means of their own, and I think I may say 
that the consideration in which they are held among their 
brother students is in no degree afifected by their position. I 
doubt whether we can say so much of the sizars and bible 
clerks at our Universities. 

At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fash- 

XJ 



242 ■ NORTH AMERICA. 

ioned, time-honoured, delicious, mediseval life which lends so 
much grace and beauty to our colleges. There are no gates, 
no porter's lodges, no butteries, no halls, no battles, and no 
common rooms. Thei'e are no proctors, no bulldogs, no bur- 
sers, no deans, no morning and evening chapel, no quads, no 
surplices, no caps and gowns. I have already said that there 
are no examinations for degrees and no honours; and I can 
easily conceive that in the absence of all these essentials many 
an Englishman will ask what right Harvard College has to call 
itself a University. 

I have said that there are no honours, — and in our sense 
there are none. But I should give offence to my American 
friends if I did not explain that there are prizes given — I think, 
all in money, and that they vary from 50 to 10 dollars. These 
•are called deturs. The degrees are given on Commencement 
Day, at which occasion certain of the expectant graduates are 
selected to take parts in a public literary exhibition. To be so 
selected seems to be tantamount to taking a degree in honours. 
There is also a dinner on Commencement Day, — at Avhich, how- 
ever, " no wine or other intoxicating drink shall be served." 

It is required that every student shall attend some place of 
Christian worship on Sundays ; but he, or his parents for him, 
may elect what denomination of church he shall attend. There 
is a University chapel on the University grounds which belongs, 
if I remember right, to the Episcopalian Church. The young 
men for the most part live in College, having rooms in the Col- 
lege buildings ; but they do not board in those rooms. There 
are establishments in the town under the patronage of the Uni- 
versity, at which dinner, breakfast, and supper are provided ; 
and the young men frequent one of these houses or another as 
they, or their friends for them, may arrange. Every young 
man not belonging to a family resident within a hundred miles 
of Cambridge, and whose parents are desirous to obtain the 
protection thus provided, is placed, as regards his pecuniary 
management, under the care of a patron, and this patron acts 
by him as a father does in England by a boy at school. He 
pays out his money for him and keeps him out of debt. The 
arrangement will not recommend itself to young men at Oxford 
quite so powerfully as it may do to the fathers of some young 
men who have been there. The rules with regard to the lodg- 
ing and boarding-houses are very stringent. Any festive en- 
tertainment is to be reported to the President. No wine or 
spirituous liquors may be used, &c. It is not a picturesque 
system, this ; but it has its advantages. 



CAMBEIDGE AND LOWELL. 243 

There is a handsome library attached to the College, which 
the young men can use ; but it is not as extensive as I had ex- 
pected. The University is not well off for funds by which to 
increase it. The new museum in the College is also a hand- 
some building. The edifices used for the undergradu-ates' 
chambers and for the lecture-rooms are by no means handsome. 
They are very ugly red-brick houses standing here and there 
without order. There are seven such, and they are called 
Brattle House, College House, Divinity Hall, Hollis Hall, Hols- 
worthy Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and Stoughton Hall. It is 
almost astonishing that buildings so ugly should have been 
erected for such a purpose. These, together with the library, 
the museum, and the chapel, stand on a large green, whicli 
might be made pretty enough if it were kept well mown like 
the gardens of our Cambridge colleges ; but it is much neglect- 
ed. Here, again, the want of funds — the res angusta domi — 
must be pleaded as an excuse. On the same green, but at some 
little distance from any other building, stands the President's 
pleasant house. 

The immediate direction of the College is of course mainly 
in the hands of the President, who is supreme. But for the 
general management of the Institution there is a Corporation, 
of which he is one. It is stated in the laws of the University 
that the Corporation of the University and its Overseers con- 
stitute the Government of the University. The Corporation 
consists of the President, five Fellows, so called, and a Treas- 
urer. These Fellows are chosen, as vacancies occur, by them- 
selves, subject to the concurrence of the Overseers. But these 
Fellows are in nowise like to the Fellows of our colleges, hav- 
ing no salaries attached to their offices. The Board of Over- 
seers consists of the State Governor, other State officers, the 
President and Treasurer of Harvard College, and thirty other 
persons, — men of note, chosen by vote. The Faculty of the 
College, in which is vested the immediate care and government 
of the undergraduates, is composed of the President and the 
Professors. The Professors answer to the tutors of our col- 
leges, and upon them the education of the place depends. I 
cannot complete this short notice of Harvard College without 
saying that it is happy in the possession of that distinguished 
natural philosopher, Professor Agassiz. M. Agassiz has col- 
lected at Cambridge a museum of such things as natural phi- 
losophers delight to show, which I am told is all but invaluable. 
As my ignorance on all such matters is of a depth which the 
Professor can hardly imagine, and which it would have shock- 



244 NORTH AMERICA. 

ed him to behold, I did not visit the museum. Taking the 
University of Harvard College as a whole, I should say that it 
is most remarkable in this, — that it does really give to its pu- 
pils that education M^hich it professes to give. Of our own 
Universities other good things may be said, but that one special 
good thing cannot always be said. 

Cambridge boasts itself as the residence of four or five men 
well known to fame on the American, and also on the European 
side of the ocean. President Felton's* name is very familiar 
to us, and wherever Greek scholarship is held in repute, that is 
known. So also is the name of Professor Agassiz, of whom I 
have spoken. Russell Lowell is one of the Professors of the 
College, — that Russell Lowell who sang of Birdo'fredum Sa- 
win, and whose Biglow Papers were edited with such an ardour 
of love by our Tom Brown. Birdo'fredum is worthy of all the 
ardour. Mr. Dana is also a Cambridge man, — he who was "two 
years before the mast," and w^ho since that has written to us 
of Cuba. But Mr. Dana, though residing at Cambridge, is not 
of Cambridge, and, though a literary man, he does not belong 
to hterature. He is, — could he help it? — a special attorney. 
I must not, however, degrade him, for in the States barristers 
and attorneys are all one. I cannot but think that he could 
help it, and that he should not give up to law what was meant 
for mankind. I fear, however, that successful law has caught 
him in her intolerant clutches, and that literature, who surely 
would be the nobler mistress, must wear the willow. Last and 
greatest is the poet-laureat of the West ; for Mr. Longfellow 
also lives at Cambridge. 

I am not at all aware whether the nature of the manufactur- 
ing corporation of Lowell is generally understood by English- 
men. I confess that until I made personal acquaintance with 
the plan, I was absolutely ignorant on the subject. I knew that 
Lowell was a manufacturing town at which cotton is made into 
calico, and at which calico is printed, — as is the case at Man- 
chester ; but I conceived this was done at Lowell, as it is done 
at Manchester, by individual enterprise, — that I or any one 
else could open a mill at Lowell, and that the manufacturers 
there were ordinary traders, as they are at other manufactur- 
ing towns. But this is by no means the case. 

* Since these words were written President Felton has died. I, as I re- 
turned on my way homewards, had the melancholy privilege of being present 
at his funeral. I feel bound to record here the great kindness with which 
Mr. Felton assisted me in obtaining such information as I needed respecting 
the Institution over which he presided. 



CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. 245 

That which most surprises an English visitor on going 
through the mills at Lowell is the personal appearance of the 
men and women who work at them. As there are twice as 
many women as there are men, it is to them that the attention 
is chiefly called. They are not only better dressed, cleaner, 
and better mounted in every respect than the girls employed 
at manufactories in England, but they are so infinitely superior 
as to make a stranger immediately perceive that some very 
strong cause must have created the difference. We all know 
the class of young women whom Ave generally see serving be- 
hind counters in the shops of our larger cities. They are neat, 
well dressed, careful, especially about their hair, composed in 
their manner, and sometimes a little supercilious in the propri- 
ety of their demeanour. It is exactly the same class of young 
women that one sees in the factories at Lowell. They are not 
salloAV, nor dirty, nor ragged, nor rough. They have about 
them no signs of want, or of low culture. Many of us also 
know the appearance of those girls who work in the factories 
in England ; and I think it will be allowed that a second glance 
at them is not wanting to show that they are in every respect 
inferior to the young women who attend our shops. The mat- 
ter, indeed, requires no argument. Any young woman at a 
shop would be insulted by being asked whether she had Avork- 
ed at a factory. The difference with regard to the men at 
Lowell is quite as strong, though not so striking. "Working 
men do not show their status in the world by their outward 
appearance as readily as women ; and, as I have said before, 
the number of the women greatly exceeded that of the men. 

One would of course be disposed to say that the superior 
condition of the workers must have been occasioned by supe- 
rior wages ; and this, to a certain extent, has been the cause. 
But the higher payment is not the chief cause. Women's 
wages, including all that they receive at the Lowell factories, 
average about 145. a week, which is, I take it, fully a third more 
than women can earn in Manchester, or did earn before the 
loss of the American cotton began to tell upon them. But if 
wages at Manchester were raised to the Lowell standard, the 
Manchester women would not be clothed, fed, cared for, and 
educated like the Lowell women. The fact is, that the work- 
men and the workwomen at Lowell are not exposed to the 
chances of an open labour market. They are taken in, as it 
were, to a philauthropical manufacturing college, and then 
looked after and regulated more as girls and lads at a great 
seminary, than as hands by whose industry profit is to be made 



246 NORTH AMERICA. 

out of capital. This is all very nice and pretty at Lowell, but 
I am afraid it could not be done at Manchester. 

There are at present twelve diiferent manufactories at Low- 
ell, each of which has what is called a separate corporation. 
The Merrimack manufacturing company was incorporated in 
1822, and thus Lowell was commenced. The Lowell machine- 
sho]3 was incorporated in 1845, and since that no new estab- 
lishment has been added. In 1821 a certain Boston manufac- 
turing company, which had mills at Waltham, near Boston, was 
attracted by the water-power of the river Merrimack, on which 
the present town of Lowell is situated. A canal, called the 
Pawtucket Canal, had been made for purposes of navigation 
from one reach of the river to another, with the object of avoid- 
ing the Pawtucket Falls ; and this canal, with the adjacent wa- 
ter-power of the river, was purchased for the Boston Comj^any. 
The place was then called Lowell, after one of the partners in 
that company. 

It must be understood that water-power alone is used for 
preparing the cotton and working the spindles and looms of 
the cotton mills. Steam is applied in the two establishments 
in which the cottons are printed, for the purposes of printing, 
but I think nowhere else. When the mills are at full work, 
about two-and-a-half million yards of cotton goods are made 
every week, and nearly a million pounds of cotton are consumed 
per week [i.e. 842,000 lbs.), but the consumption of coal is only 
30,000 tons in the year. This will give some idea of the val- 
ue of the water-power. The Pawtucket Canal was, as I say, 
bought, and Lowell was commenced. The town was incor- 
porated in 1826, and the railway between it and Boston was 
opened in 1835, under the superintendence of Mr. Jackson, the 
gentleman by whom the purchase of the canal had in the first 
instance been made. Lowell now contains about 40,000 inhab- 
itants. 

The following extract is taken from the hand-book to Low- 
ell : — " Mr. F. C. Lowell had in his travels abroad observed the 
effect of large manufacturing establishments on the character 
of the people, and in the establishment at Waltham the found- 
ers looked for a remedy for these defects. They thought that 
education and good morals would even enhance the profit, and 
that they could compete with Great Britain by introducing a 
more cultivated class of operatives. For this purpose they 
built boarding-houses, which, under the direct supervision of 
the agent, were kept by discreet matrons" — I can answer for 
the discreet matrons at Lowell — " mostly widows, no boarders 



CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. 247 

being allowed except operatives. Agents and overseers of high 
moral character were selected ; regulations were adopted at 
the mills and boarding-houses, by which only respectable girls 
were employed. The mills were nicely painted and swept," — 
I can also answer for the painting and sweeping at Lowell, — 
"trees set out in the yards and along the streets, habits of neat- 
ness and cleanliness encouraged ; and the result justified the 
expenditure. At Lowell the same policy has been adopted and 
extended; more spacious mills and elegant boarding-houses 
have been erected ;" — as to the elegance, it may be a matter of 
taste, but as to the comfort there is no question, — " the same 
care as to the classes employed ; more capital has been expend- 
ed for cleanliness and decoration ; a hospital has been estab- 
lished for the sick, where, for a small price, they have an expe- 
rienced physician and skilful nurses. An institute, with an ex- 
tensive library, for the use of the mechanics, has been endowed. 
The agents have stood forward in the support of schools, church- 
es, lectures, and lyceums, and their influence contributed highly 
to the elevation of the moral and intellectual character of the 
operatives. Talent has been encouraged, brought forward, and 
recommended." — For some considerable time the young wo- 
men wrote, edited, and j^ublished a newspaper among them- 
selves, called the Lowell Offering. — " And Lowell has supplied 
agents and mechanics for the later manufacturing places who 
have given tone to society, and extended the beneficial influ- 
ence of Lowell through the United States. Girls from the 
country, with a true Yankee spirit of independence, and confi- 
dent in their own powers, pass a few years here, and then re- 
turn to get married with a dower secured by their exertions, 
with more enlarged ideas and extended means of information, 
and their places are supplied by younger relatives. A larger 
proportion of the female population of New England has been 
employed at some time in manufacturing establishments, and 
they are not on this account less good wives, mothers, or edu- 
cators of families." Then the account goes on to tell how the 
health of the girls has been improved by their attendance at 
the mills, how they put money into the savings-banks, and buy 
railway-shares and farms; how there are thirty churches in 
Lowell, a library, banks, and insurance offices ; how there is a 
cemetery, and a park, and how everything is beautiful, philan- 
thropic, profitable, and magnificent. 

Thus Lowell is the realization of a commercial Utopia. Of 
all the statements made in the little book which I have quoted 
I cannot point out one which is exaggerated, much less false. 



248 NORTH AMERICA. 

I should not call the place elegant; in other respects I am dis- 
posed to stand by the book. Before I had made any inquiry 
into the cause of the apparent comfort, it struck me at once 
that some great effort at excellence was being made. I went 
into one of the discreet matrons' residences ; and perhaps may 
give but an indifferent idea of her discretion when I say that 
she allowed me to go into the bedrooms. If you want to as- 
certain tlie inner ways or habits of life of any man, woman, or 
child, see, if it be practicable to do so, his or her bedroom. 
You will learn more by a minute's glance round that holy of 
holies, than by any conversation. Looking-glasses and such 
like, suspended dresses, and toilet-belongings, if taken without 
notice, cannot lie or even exaggerate. The discreet matron at 
first showed me rooms only prepared for use, for at the period 
of my visit Lowell was by no means full ; but she soon became 
more intimate with me, and I went through the upper part of 
the house. My report must be altogether in *her favour and 
in that of Lowell. Everything was cleanly, well-ordered, and 
feminine. There was not a bed on which any woman need 
have hesitated to lay herself if occasion required it. I fear that 
this cannot be said of the lodgings of the manufacturing classes 
at Manchester. The boarders all take their meals together. 
As a rule, they have meat twice a-day. Hot meat for dinner 
is with them as much a matter of course, or probably more so, 
than with any English man or woman who may read this book. 
For in the States of America regulations on this matter are 
much more rigid than with us. Cold meat is rarely seen, and 
to live a day without meat would be as great a privation as to 
pass a night without bed. 

The rules for the guidance of these boarding-houses are very 
rigid. The houses themselves belong to the corporations or 
different manufacturing establishments, and the tenants are al- 
together in the power of the managers. None but operatives 
are to be taken in. The tenants are answerable for improper 
conduct. The doors are to be closed at ten o'clock. Any 
boarders who do not attend divine worship are to be reported 
to the managers. The yards and walks are to be kept clean, 
and snow removed at once ; and the inmates must be vaccin- 
ated, &c., &c., &c. It is expressly stated by the Hamilton 
Company, — and I believe by all the companies, — that no one 
shall be employed who is habitually absent from public worship 
on Sunday, or who is known to be guilty of immorality. It is 
stated that the average wages of the women are two dollars, 
or eight shillings, a week, besides their board. I found when 



CAMBEIDGE AND LOWELL. 249 

I was there that fi'om three dollars to three-and-a-half a week 
were paid to the women, of which they paid one dollar and 
twenty-five cents for their board. As this would not fully 
cover the expense of their keep, twenty-five cents a week for 
each was also paid to the boarding-house keepers by the mill 
agents. This substantially came to the same thing, as it left 
the two dollars a Aveek, or eight shillings, with the girls over 
and above their cost of living. The board included washing, 
lights, food, bed, and attendance, — leaving a surplus of eight 
shillings a week for clothes and saving. Now let me ask any 
one acquainted with Manchester and its operatives, whether 
that is not Utopia realized. Factory girls, for whom every com- 
fort of life is secured, with 21^. a year over for saving and dress ! 
One sees the failing, however, at a moment. It is Utopia. Any 
Lady Bountiful can tutor three or four peasants and make them 
luxuriously comfortable. But no Lady Bountiful can give lux- 
urious comfort to half-a-dozen parishes. Lowell is now nearly 
forty years old, and contains but 40,000 inhabitants. From the 
very nature of its corporations it cannot spread itself. Chicago, 
which has grown out of nothing in a much shorter period, and 
which has no factories, has now 120,000 inhabitants. Lowell 
is a very wonderful place and shows what philanthropy can do ; 
but I fear it also shows what philanthropy cannot do. 

There are, however, other establishments, conducted on the 
same principle as those at LoAvell, which have had the same 
amount, or rather the same sort, of success. Lawrence is now 
a town of about 15,000 inhabitants, and Manchester of about 
24,000, — if I remember rightly ; — and at those places the mills 
are also owned by corporations and conducted as are those at 
Lowell. But it seems to me that as New England takes her 
place in the world as a great manufacturing country — which 
place she undoubtedly will take sooner or later — she must aban- 
don the hot-house method of providing for her operatives with 
which she has commenced her work. In the first place, Lowell 
is not open as a manufacturing town to the capitalists even of 
New England at large. Stock may, I presume, be bought in 
the corporations, but no interloper can establish a mill there. 
It is a close manufacturing community, bolstered up on all sides, 
and has none of that capacity for providing employment for a 
thickly-growing population which belongs to such places as 
Manchester and Leeds. That it should under its present sys- 
tem have been made in any degree profitable reflects great 
credit on the managers ; but the profit does not reach an amount 
which in America can be considered as remunerative. The 

L2 



250 NOETH AMERICA. 

total capital invested by the twelve corporations is thirteen 
million and a half of dollars, or about two million seven hun- 
dred thousand pounds. In only one of the corporations, that 
of the Merrimack Company, does the profit amount to 12 per 
cent. In one, that of the Boott Company, it falls below 7 per 
cent. The average profit of the various establishments is some- 
thing below 9 per cent. I am of course speaking of Lowell as 
it was previous to the war. American capitalists are not, as a 
rule, contented with so low a rate of interest as this. 

The States in these matters have had a great advantage over 
England. They have been able to begin at the beginning. 
Manufactories have grown up among us as our cities grew ; — 
from the necessities and chances of the times. When labour 
was wanted it was obtained in the ordinary way ; and so when 
houses were built they were built in the ordinary way. We 
had not the experience, and the results either for good or bad, 
of other nations to guide us. The Americans, in seeing and 
resolving to adopt our commercial successes, have resolved 
also, if possible, to avoid the evils which have attended those 
successes. It would be very desirable that all our factory girls 
should read and write, wear clean clothes, have decent beds, 
and eat hot meat every day. But that is now impossible. 
Gradually, with very up-hill work, but still I trust with sure 
work, much will be done to improve their position and render 
their life respectable ; but in England we can have no Lowells. 
In our thickly populated island any commercial Utopia is out 
of the question. Nor can, as I think, Lowell be taken as a type 
of the future manufacturing towns of New England. When 
New England employs millions in her factories, instead of thou- 
sands, — the hands employed at Lowell, when the mills are at 
full work, are about 11,000, — she must cease to provide for 
them their beds and meals, their church-going proprieties and 
orderly modes of life. In such an attempt she has all the expe- 
rience of the world against her. But nevertheless I think she 
will have done much good. The tone which she will have given 
will not altogether lose its influence. Employment in a factory 
is now considered reputable by a farmer and his children, and 
this idea will remain. Factory work is regarded as more re- 
spectable than domestic service, and this prestige will not wear 
itself altogether out. Those now employed have a strong con- 
ception of the dignity of their own social position, and their 
successors will inherit much of this, even though they may find 
themselves excluded from the advantages of the present Utopia. 
The thing has begun well, but it can only be regarded as a be- 



CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. 251: 

ginning. Steam, it may be presumed, will become the motive 
power of cotton mills in New England as it is with us ; and 
when it is so, the amount of work to be done at any one place 
will not be checked by any such limit as that which now pre- 
vails at Lowell. Water-power is very cheap, but it cannot be 
extended ; and it would seem that no place can become large 
as a manufacturing town which has to depend chiefly upon 
water. It is not improbable that steam may be brought into 
general use at Lowell, and that Lowell may spread itself. If it 
should spread itself widely, it will lose its Utopian character- 
istics. 

One cannot but be greatly struck by the spirit of philan- 
thropy in which the system of Lowell was at first instituted. 
It may be presumed that men who put their money into such 
an undertaking did so with the object of commercial profit to 
themselves ; but in this case that was not their first object. I 
think it may be taken for granted that when Messrs. Jackson 
and Lowell went about their task, their grand idea was to place 
factory work upon a respectable footing, — to give employment 
in mills which should not be unhealthy, degrading, demorali- 
zing, or hard in its circumstances. Throughout the northern 
States of America the same feeling is to be seen. Good and 
thoughtful men have been active to spread education, to main- 
tain health, to make work compatible with comfort and per- 
sonal dignity, an# to divest the ordinary lot of man of the sting 
of that curse which was sui:>posed to be uttered when our first 
father was ordered to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow. 
One is driven to contrast this feeling, of which on all sides one 
sees such ample testimony, with that sharp desire for profit, 
that anxiety to do a stroke of trade at every turn, that ac- 
knowledged necessity of being smart, which we must own is 
quite as general as the nobler propensity. I believe that both 
phases of commercial activity mav be attributed to the same 
characteristic. Men in trade in America are not more covet- 
ous than tradesmen in England, nor probably are they more 
generous or philanthropical. But that which they do, they 
are more anxious to do thoroughly and quickly. They desire 
that every turn taken shall be a great turn, — or at any rate 
that it shall be as great as possible. They go ahead either for 
good or bad with all the energy they have. In the institutions 
at Lowell I think we may allow that the good has very much 
prevailed. 

I went over two of the mills, those of the Merrimack corpo- 
ration, and of the Massachusetts. At the former the printing 



252 NORTH AMERICA. 

establishment only was at work ; the cotton-raills were closed. 
I hardly know whether it will interest any one to learn that 
something under half-a-million yards of calico are here printed 
annually. At the Lowell bleachery fifteen million yards are 
dyed annually. The Merrimack cotton-mills were stopped, 
and so had the other mills at Lowell been stopped, till some 
short time before my visit. Trade had been bad, and there 
had of course been a lack of cotton. I was assured that no se- 
vere suffering had been created by this stoppage. The greater 
number of hands had returned into the country, — to the farms 
from whence they had come ; and though a discontinuance of 
work and wages had of course produced hardship, there had 
been no actual privation, — no hunger and want. Those of the 
workpeople who had no homes out of Lowell to which to be- 
take themselves, and no means at Lowell of living, had received 
relief before real suffering had begun. I was assured, with 
something of a smile of contempt at the question, that there 
had been nothing like hunger. But, as I said before, visitors 
always see a great deal of rose colour, and should endeavour 
to allay the brilliancy of the tint with the proper amount of 
human shading. But do not let any visitor mix in the browns 
with too heavy a hand ! 

At the Massachusetts cotton-mills they were working with 
about two-thirds of their full number of hands, and this, I was 
told, was about the average of the number now employed 
throughout Lowell. Working at this rate they had now on 
hand a supply of cotton to last them for six months. Their 
stocks had been increased lately, and on asking from whence, 
I was informed that that last received had come to thera from 
Liverpool. There is, I believe, no doubt but that a considera- 
ble quantity of cotton has been shipped back from England to 
the States since the civil war began. I asked the gentleman, 
to whose care at Lowell I was consigned, whether he expected 
to get cotton from the South, — for at that time Beaufort in 
South Carolina had just been taken by the naval expedition. 
He had, he said, a political expectation of a supply of cotton, 
but not a commercial expectation. That at last was the gist 
of his reply, and I found it to be both intelligent and intelligi- 
ble. The Massachusetts mills, when at full work, employ 1300 
females and 400 males, and turn out 640,000 yards of calico 
per week. 

On my return from Lowell in the smoking car, an old man 
came and squeezed in next to me. The place was terribly 
crowded, and as the old man was thin and clean and quiet I 



THE EIGHTS OF WOMEN. 253 

willingly made room for him, so as to avoid the contiguity of 
a neighbom- who might be neither thin, nor clean, nor quiet. 
He began talking to me in whispers about the war, and I was 
suspicious that he was a Southerner and a Secessionist. Under 
such circumstances his company might not be agreeable, un- 
less he could be induced to hold his tongue. At last he said, 
"I come from Canada, you know, and you, — you're an En- 
glishman, and therefore I can sj^eak to you openly ;" and he 
gave me an affectionate grip on the knee with his old skinny 
hand. I suppose I do look more like an Englishman than an 
American, but I was surprised at his knowing me with such 
certainty. " There is no mistaking you," he said, " with your 
round face and your red cheeks. They don't look like that 
here," and he gave me another grip. I felt quite fond of the 
old man, and offered him a cigar. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE RIGHTS OP WOMEN. 

We all know that the subject which appears above as the title 
of this chapter is a very favourite subject in America. It is, I 
hope, a very favourite subject in England also, and I am inclined 
to think has been so for many years past. The rights of women, 
as contradistinguished from the wrongs of women, has perhaps 
been the most precious of the legacies left to us by the feudal ages. 
How amidst the rough darkness of old Teuton rule women began 
to receive that respect which is now their dearest right, is one of 
the most interesting studies of history. It came, I take it, chiefly 
from their own conduct. The women of the old classic races seem 
to have enjoyed but a small amount of respect or of rights, and to 
have deserved as little. It may have been very well for one Cae- 
sar to have said that his wife should be above suspicion ; but his 
wife was put away, and therefore either did not have her rights, 
or else had justly forfeited them. The daughter of the next Ceesar 
lived in Rome the life of a Messalina, and did not on that account 
seem to have lost her " position in society," till she absolutely de- 
clined to throw any veil whatever over her propensities. But as 
the Roman empire fell, chivalry began. For a time even chivalry 
afforded but a dull time to the women. During the musical pe- 
riod of the troubadours, ladies, I fancy, had but little to amuse them 
save the music. But that was the beginning, and from that time 
downwards the rights of women have progressed very favourably. 



254 NORTH AMERICA. 

It may be that they have not yet all that should belong to them. 
If that be the case, let the men lose no time in making up the dif- 
ference. But it seems to me that the women who are now mak- 
ing their claims may perhaps hardly know when they are well oif. 
It will be an ill movement if they insist on throwing away any o£^ 
the advantages they have won. As for the women in America 
especially, I must confess that I think they have a "good time." 
I make them my compliments on their sagacity, intelligence, and 
attractions, but I utterly refuse to them any sympatliy for sup-^ 
posed wrongs. fortanatas sua si bona nuriid! Whether or no, 
were I an American married man and father of a family, I should 
not go in for the rights of man — that is altogether another cpies- 
tion. 

This question of the rights of women divides itself into two 
heads, — one of which is very important, worthy of much consider- 
ation, capable perhaps of much philantliropic action, and at any 
rate affording matter for grave discussion. This is the question 
of women's work ; how far the work of the world, which is now 
borne chiefly by men, should be thrown open to women further 
than is now done. The other seems to me to be worthy of no 
consideration, to be capable of no action, to admit of no grave dis- 
cussion. This refers to the political rights of women ; how far 
the political working of the world, which is now entirely in the 
hands of men, should be divided between them and women. The 
first question is being debated on our side of the Atlantic as keen- 
ly perhaps as on the American side. As to that other question, I 
do not know that much has ever been said about it in Europe. 

" You are doing nothing in England towards the employment 
of females," a lady said to me in one of the States soon after my 
arrival in America. " Pardon me," I answered, "I think we are 
doing much, perhaps too much. At any rate we are doing some- 
thing." I then explained to her how Miss Faithfull had insti- 
tuted a printing establishment in London; how all the work in 
that concern was done by females, except such heavy tasks as those 
for which women could not be fitted, and I handed to her one of 
Miss Faithfull' s cards. " Ah," said my American friend, " poor 
creatures ! I have no doubt their very flesh will be worked off 
their bones." I thought this a little unjust on her part ; but nev- 
ertheless, it occurred to me as an answer not unfit to be made by 
some other lady, — by some woman who had not already advocated 
the increased employment of women. Let Miss Faithfull look to 
that. Not that she will work the flesh off her young women's 
bones, or allow such terrible consequences to take place in Coram- 



THE EIGHTS OF WOMEN. 255 

street ; not that she or that those connected with her in that en- 
terprise will do aught but good to those employed therein. It 
will not even be said of her individually, or of her partners, that 
they have worked the flesh off women's bones; but may it not 
come to this, that when the tasks now done by men have been 
shifted to the shoulders of women, women themselves will so com- 
plain '? May it not go further, and come even to this, that women 
will have cause for such complaint ? I do not think that such a 
result will come, because I do not think that the object desired by 
those who are active in the matter will be attained. Men, as a 
general rule among civilized nations, have elected to earn their own 
bread and the bread of the women also, and from this resolve on 
their part I do not think that they will be beaten off. 

We know that Mrs. Dall, an American lady, has taken up this 
subject, and has written a book on it, in which great good sense 
and honesty of purpose are shown. Mrs. Dall is a strong advocate 
for the increased employment of women, and I, with great defer- 
ence, disagree with her. I allude to her book now because she has 
pointed out, I think very strongly, the great reason why women do 
not engage themselves advantageously in trade pursuits. She by 
no means overpraises her own sex, and openly declares that young 
women will not consent to place themselves in fair competition 
with men. They will not undergo the labour and servitude of 
long study at tlieir trades. They will not give themselves up to 
an apprenticeship". They will not enter upon their tasks as though 
they were to be the tasks of their lives. They may have the same 
physical and mental aptitudes for learning a trade as men, but they 
have not the same devotion to the pursuit, and will not bind them- 
selves to it thoroughly as men do. In all which I quite agree 
with Mrs. Dall ; and the English of it is, — that the young women 
' want to get married. 

God forbid that they should not so want. Indeed God has for- 
bidden in a very express way that there should be any lack of such 
a desire on the part of women. There has of late years arisen a 
feeling among masses of the best of our English ladies that this 
feminine propensity should be checked. We are told that unmar- 
ried women may be respectable, which we always knew ; that they 
may be useful, which we also acknowledge, — thinking still that if 
married they would be more useful ; and that they may be happy, 
which we trust, — feeling confident however that they might in an- 
other position be more happy. But the question is not only as to 
the respectability, usefulness, and happiness of womankind, but as 
to that of men also. If women can do without marriage, can men 



256 NOKTH AMERICA. 

do S0 1 And if not, how are the men to get wives if the women 
elect to remain single? 

It will be thought that I am treating the subject as though it 
were simply jocose, but I beg to assure my reader that such is not 
my intention. It certainly is the fact that that disinclination to 
an apprenticeship and unwillingness to bear the long training for 
a trade, of which Mrs. Dall complains on the part of young wom- 
en, arise from the fact, that they have other hopes with which such 
apprenticeships would jar ; and it is also certain that if such dis- 
inclination be overcome on the part of any great number, it must 
be overcome by the destruction or banishment of such hopes. The 
question is, whether would good or evil result from such a change ? 
It is often said that whatever difficulty a woman may have in get- 
ting a husband, no man need encounter difficulty in finding a wife. 
But in spite of this seeming fact,l think it must be allowed that 
if women are withdrawn from the marriage market, men must be 
withdrawn from it also to the same extent. 

In any broad view of this matter we are bound to look, not on 
any individual case, and the possible remedies for such cases, but 
on the position in the world occupied by women in general ; on 
the general happiness and welfare of the aggrega.te feminine world, 
and perhaps also a little on the genei'al happiness and welfare of 
the aggregate male world. When ladies and gentlemen advocate 
the right of women to employment, they are taking very different 
ground from that on which stand those less extensive philanthro- 
pists who exert themselves for the benefit of distressed needlewom- 
en, for instance, or for the alleviation of the more bitter misery of 
governesses. The two questions are in fact absolutely antagonistic 
to each other. The rights-of-women advocate is doing his best to 
create that position for women, from the possible misfortunes of 
which the friend of the needlewomen is struggling to relieve them. 
The one is endeavouring to throw work from off the shoulders of 
men on to the shoulders of women, and the other is striving to 
lessen the burden which women are already bearing. Of course 
it is good to relieve distress in individual cases. That Song of 
the Shirt, which I regard as poetry of the immortal kind, has 
done an amount of good infinitely wider than poor Hood ever 
ventured to hope. Of all such efforts I would speak not only 
with respect, but with loving admiration. But of those whose ef- 
forts are made to spread work more widely among women, to call 
upon them to make for us our watches, to print our books, to sit 
at our desks as clerks, and to add up our accounts ; much as I 
may respect the individual operators in such a movement, I can 
express no admiration for their judgment. 



THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. 25T 

1 have seen women with ropes round their necks drawing a 
harrow over ploughed ground. No one will, I suppose, say that 
they approve of that. But it would not have shocked me to see 
men drawing a harrow. I should have thought it slow, unprofit- 
able work, but my feelings would not have been hurt. There 
must, therefore, be some limit ; but if we men teach ourselves to 
believe that work is good for women, where is the limit to be 
drawn, and who shall draw it ? It is true that there is now no 
actually defined limit. There is much work tliat is commonly 
open to both sexes. Personal domestic attendance is so, and the 
attendance in shops. The use of the needle is shared between 
men and women, and few, I take it, know where the sempstress 
ends and where the tailor begins. In many trades a wom.an can 
be, and very often is, the owner and manager of the business. 
Painting is as much open to women as to men ; as also is litera- 
ture. There can be no defined limit ; but nevertheless there is at 
present a quasi limit, which the rights-of-women advocates wish 
to move, and so to move that women shall do more work and not 
less. A woman now could not well be a cab-driver in London ; 
but are these advocates sure that no woman will be a cab-driver 
when success has attended their efforts ? And would they like to 
see a woman driving a cab? For my part I confess I do not like 
to see a woman acting as road-keeper on a French railway. I 
have seen a woman acting as ostler at a public stage in Ireland. 
I knew the circumstances, — how her husband had become ill and 
incapable, and how she had been allowed to earn the wages ; but 
nevertheless the sight was to me disagreeable, and seemed, as far 
as it went, to degrade the sex. Chivalry has been very active in 
raising women from the hard and hardening tasks of the world, 
and through this action they have become soft, tender, and virtu- 
ous. It seems to me that they of whom I am now speaking are 
desirous of undoing what chivalry has done. 

The argument used is of course plain enough. It is said that 
women are left destitute in the world, — destitute unless they can 
be self-dependent, and that to women should be given the same 
open access to wages that men possess, in order that they may be 
as self-dependent as men. Why should a young woman, for whom 
no father is able to provide, not enjoy those means of provision 
which are open to a young man so circumstanced '? But I think 
the answer is very simple. The young man under the happiest 
circumstances which may befall him is bound to earn his bread. 
The young woman is only so bound when happy circumstances do 
not befall her. Should we endeavour to make the recurrence of 



258 NORTH AMERICA. 

unhappy circumstances more general or less so ? What does any 
tradesman, any professional man, any mechanic wish for his chil- 
dren ? Is it not this, that his sons shall go forth and earn their 
bread, and that his daughters shall remain with him till tliey are 
married ? Is not that the mother's wish ? Is it not notorious 
that such is the wish of us all as to our daughters ? In advocat- 
ing the rights of women it is of other men's girls that we think, 
never of our own. 

But, nevertheless, what shall we do for those women who must 
earn their bread by their own work ? Whatever we do, do not 
let us wilfully increase their number. By opening trades to wom- 
en, by making them printers, watchmakers, accountants, or what 
not, we shall not simply relieve those who must now earn their 
bread by some such work or else starve. It will not be within 
our power to stop ourselves exactly at a certain point ; to arrange 
that those women who under existing circumstances may now be 
in want, shall be thus placed beyond want, but that no others 
shall be affected. Men, I fear, will be too willing to relieve them- 
selves of some portion of their present burden, should the world's 
altered ways enable them to do so. At present a lawyer's clerk 
may earn perhaps his two guineas a week, and he with his wife 
lives on that in fair comfort. But if his wife, as well as he, has 
been brought up as a lawyer's clerk, he will look to her also for 
some amount of wages. I doubt whether the two guineas would 
be much increased, but I do not doubt at all that the woman's po- 
sition would be injured. 

It seems to me that in discussing this subject, philanthropists 
fail to take hold of the right end of the argument. Money returns 
from work are very good, and work itself is good, as bringing such 
returns and occupying both body and mind ; but the world's work 
is very hard, and workmen are too often overdriven. The ques- 
tion seems to me to be this, — of all this work have the men got on 
their own backs too heavy a share for them to bear, and should 
they seek relief by throwing more of it upon women f It is the 
rights of man that we are in fact debating. These watches are 
weary to make, and this type is troublesome to set. We have 
battles to fight and speeches to make, and our hands altogether 
are too full. The women are idle, — many of them. They shall 
make the watches for us and set the type ; and when they have 
done that, why should they not make nails as they do sometimes 
in Worcestershire, or clean horses, or drive the cabs ? They have 
had an easy time of it for these years past, but we'll change that. 
And then it would come to pass that with ropes round their necks 
the women would be drawing harrows across the fields. 



THE EIGHTS OF AVOMEN. 259 

I don't think this will come to pass. The women generally do 
know when they are well off, and are not particularly anxious to 
accept the philanthropy proffered to them ; — as Mrs. Dall says, 
they do not wish to bind themselves as apprentices to independent 
money-making. This cry has been louder in America than with 
us, but even in America it has not been efficacious for much. 
There is in the States, no doubt, a sort of hankering after increasecr 
influence, a desire for that prominence of position which men at- 
tain by loud voices and brazen foreheads, a desire in the female 
heart to be up and doing something, if the female heart only knew 
what; but even in the States it has hardly advanced beyond a few 
feminine lectures. In many branches of work women are less em- 
ployed than in ^England. They are not so frequent behind the 
counters in the shops, and are rarely seen as servants in hotels. 
The fires in such houses are lighted and the rooms swept by men. 
But the American girls may say they do not desire to light fires 
and sweep rooms. They are ambitious of the higher classes of 
work. But those liigher branches of work require study, appren-^ 
ticeship, a devotion of youth ; and that they will not give. /'It is 
very well for a young man to bind himself for four years, and to 
think of marrying four years after that apprenticeship is over. 
But such a prospectus will not do for a girl. While the sun shines 
the hay must be made, and her sun shines earlier in the day than 
that of him who is to be her husband. Let him go through the 
apprenticeship and the work, and she will have sufficient on her 
hands if she looks well after his household. Under nature's teach- 
ing she is aware of this, and will not bind herself to any other ap- 
prenticeship, let Mrs. Dall preach as she may. 

I remember seeing, either at New York or Boston, a wooden 
figure of a neat young woman, as large as life, standing at a desk 
with a ledger before her, and looking as though the beau ideal of 
human bliss were realized in her employment. Under the figure 
there was some notice respecting female accountants. Nothing 
could be nicer than the lady's figure, more flowing than the broad 
lines of her drapery, or more attractive than her auburn ringlets. 
There she stood at work, earning her bread without any impedi- 
ment to the natural operation of her female charms, and adjusting 
the accounts of some great firm with as much facility as grace. I 
wonder whether he who designed that figure had ever sat or stood 
at a desk for six hours, — whether he knew the dull hum of the 
brain which comes from long attention to another man's figures ; 
whether he had ever soiled his own fingers with the everlasting 
work of office hours, or worn his sleeves threadbare as he leaned 



260 NORTH AMERICA. 

weary in body and mind upon his desk ? Work is a grand thing, 
— the grandest thing we have ; but work is not picturesque, grace- 
ful, and in itself alluring. It sucks the sap out of men's bones, 
and bends their backs, and sometimes breaks their hearts ; but 
though it be so, I for one would not wish to throw any heavier 
share of it on to a woman's shoulders. It was pretty to see those 
young women with spectacles at the Boston library, but when I 
heard that they were there from eight in the morning till nine at 
night, I pitied them their loss of all the softness of home, and felt 
that they would not willingly be there if necessity were less stern. 

Say that by advocating the rights of women, philanthropists 
succeed in apportioning more work to their share, will they eat 
more, wear better clothes, lie softer, and have altogether more of 
the fruits of work than they do now '? That some would do so 
there can be no doubt, but as little that some would have less. If 
on the whole they would not have more, for what good result is 
the movement made ? The first question is, whether at the pres- 
ent time they have less than their proper share. There are, un- 
questionably, terrible cases of female want, and so there are also 
of want among men. Alas ! do we not all feel that it must be 
so, let the philanthropists be ever so energetic ? And if a woman 
be left destitute, without the assistance of father, brother, or hus- 
band, it would be hard if no means of earning subsistence were 
open to her. But the object now sought is not that of relieving 
such distress. It has a much wider tendency, or at any rate a 
wider desire. The idea is that women will ennoble themselves by 
making themselves independent, by working for their own bread 
instead of eating bread earned by men. It is in that that these 
new philosophers seem to me to err so greatly. Humanity and 
chivalry have succeeded after a long struggle in teaching the man 
to work for the woman ; and now the woman rebels against such 
teaching, — not because she likes the work, but because she desires 
the influence which attends it. But in this I wrong the woman, 
— even the American woman. It is not she who desires it, but 
her philanthropical philosophical friends who desire it for her. 

If work were more equally divided between the sexes some wom- 
en would, of course, receive more of the good things of the world. 
But women generally would not do so. The tendency then would 
be to force young women out upon their own exertions. Fathers 
would soon learn to think that their daughters should be no more 
dependent on them than their sons ; men would expect their wives 
to work at their own trades ; brothers would be taught to think 
it hard that their sisters should lean on them ; and thus women, 



THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. 261 

driven upon their own resources, would hardly fare better than 
they do at present. 

After all it is a question of money, and a contest for that power 
and influence which money gives. At present men have the po- 
sition of the Lower House of Parliament. They have to do the 
harder work, but they hold the purse. Even in England there 
has grown up a feeling that the old law of the land gives a mar- 
ried man too much power over the joint pecuniary resources of 
him and his wife, and in America this feeling is much stronger, 
and the old law has been modified. Why should a married wom- 
an be able to possess nothing ? And if such be the law of the 
land, is it worth a woman's while to marry and put herself in such 
a position ? Those are the questions asked by the friends of the 
rights of women. But the young women do marry, and the men 
pour their earnings into their wives' laps. 

If little has as yet been done in extending the rights of women 
by giving them a greater share of the work of the world, still 
less has been done towards giving them their portion of political 
influence. In the States there are many men of mark, and women 
of mark also, who think that women should have votes for public 
elections. Mr. Wendell Phillips, the Boston lecturer who advo- 
cates abolition, is an apostle in this cause also ; and while I was 
at Boston I read the provisions of a will lately left by a million- 
aire, in which he bequeathed some very large sums of money to be 
expended in agitation on this subject. A woman is subject to the 
law ; why then should she not help to make the law ? A child 
is subject to the law, and does not help to make it ; but the child 
lacks that discretion which the woman enjoys equally with the 
man. That I take it is the amount of the argument in favour of 
the political rights of women. The logic of this is so conclusive, 
that I am prepared to acknowledge that it admits of no answer. 
I will only say that the mutual good relations between men and 
women, which are so indispensable to our happiness, require that 
men and women should not take to voting at the same time and 
on the same result. If it be decided that women shall have po- 
litical power, let them have it all to themselves for a season. If 
that be so resolved, I think we may safely leave it to them to name 
the time at which they will begin. 

I confess that in the States I have sometimes been driven to 
think that chivalry has been carried too far ; — that there is an 
attempt to make women think more of the rights of their woman- 
hood than is needful. There are ladies' doors at hotels, and la- 
dies' drawing-rooms, ladies' sides on the ferry-boats, ladies' win- 



262 NOKTH AMERICA. 

dows at the post office for the delivery of letters ; — which, by-the- 
by, is an atrocious institution, as anybody may learn who will look 
at the advertisements called personal in some of the New York 
papers. Why should not young ladies have their letters sent to 
their houses, instead of getting them at a private window '? The 
post-ofiice clerks can tell stories about those ladies' windows. But 
at every turn it is necessary to make separate provision for ladies. 
From all this it comes to pass that the baker's daughter looks down 
from a great height on her papa, and by no means thinks her broth- 
er good enough for her associate. Nature, the great restorer, comes 
in and teaches her to fall in love with the butcher's son. Thus 
the evil is mitigated ; but I cannot but wish that the young wo- 
man should not see herself denominated a lady so often, and should 
receive fewer lessons as to the extent of her privileges. I would 
save her if I could from working at the oven ; I would give to her 
bread and meat earned by her father's care and her brother's 
sweat ; but when she has received these good things, I would have 
her proud of the one and by no means ashamed of the other. 

Let women say what they will of their rights, or men who think 
themselves generous say what they will for them, the question has 
all been settled both for them and for us men by a higher power. 
They are the nursing mothers of mankind, and in that law their 
fate is written with all its joys and all its privileges. It is for 
men to make those joys as lasting and those privileges as perfect 
as may be. That women should have their rights no man will 
deny. To my thinking neither increase of work nor increase of 
political influence are among them. The best right a woman has 
is the right to a husband, and that is the right to which I would 
recommend every young woman here and in the States to turn 
her best attention. On the whole, I think that my doctrine ^^'\\\ 
be more acceptable than that of Mrs. Dall or Mr. Wendell riiillips. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 

The one matter in which, as far as my judgment goes, the peo- 
ple of the United States have excelled us Englishmen, so as to 
justify them in taking to themselves praise which we cannot take 
to ourselves or refuse to them, is the matter of Education. In 
saying this I do not think that I am proclaiming anything dis- 
graceful to England, though I am proclaiming much that is cred- 
itable to America. To the Americans of the States was given 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 263 

the good fortune of beginning at the beginning. The French at 
the time of their revolution endeavoured to reorganize everything, 
and to begin the world again with new habits and grand theories ; 
but the French as a people were too old for such a change, and 
the theories fell to the ground. But in the States, after their rev- 
olution, an Anglo-Saxon people had an opportunity of making a 
new State, with all the experience of the world before them ; and 
to this matter of education they were from the first aware that they 
must look for their success. They did so ; and unrivalled popu- 
lation, wealth, and intelligence have been the results ; and with 
these, looking at the whole masses of the people, — I think I am 
justified in saying, — unrivalled comfort and happiness. It is not 
that you, my reader, to whom in this matter of education fortune 
and your parents have probably been bountiful, would have been 
more happy in New York than in London. It is not that I, who, 
at any rate, can read and write, liave cause to wish that I had 
been an American. But it is this ; — if you and I can count up 
in a day all those on whom our eyes may rest, and learn the cir- 
cumstances of their lives, we shall be driven to conclude that nine- 
tenths of that number would have had a better life as Americans 
than they can have in their spheres as Englishmen. The States 
are at a discount with us now, in the beginning of this year of 
grace 1862 ; and Englishmen were not very willing to admit the 
above statement, even when the States were not at a discount. 
But I do not think that a man can travel through the States with 
his eyes open and not admit the fact. Many things will conspire 
to induce him to shut his eyes and admit no conclusion favourable 
to the Americans. Men and women will sometimes be impudent 
to him ; — the better his coat, the greater the impudence. He will 
be pelted with the braggadocio of equality. The corns of his Old- 
World conservatism will be trampled on hourly by the purposely 
vicious herd of uncouth democracy. The fact that he is paymas- 
ter will go for nothing, and will fail to insure civility. I shall 
never forget my agony as I saw and heard my desk fall from a 
porter's hand on a railway station, as he tossed it from him seven 
yards off on to the hard pavement. I heard its poor weak intes- 
tines rattle in their death-struggle, and knowing that it was smash- 
ed I forgot my position on American soil and remonstrated. "It's 
my desk, and you've utterly destroyed it," I said. " Ha! ha! ha !" 
laughed the porter. "You've destroyed my property," I rejoined, 
" and it's no laughing matter." And then all the crowd laughed. 
" Guess you'd better get it glued," said one. So I gathered up 
the broken article and retired mournfully and crestfallen into a 



264 NORTH AMERICA. 

coach. This was very sad, and for the moment I deplored the 
ill-luck which had brought me to so savage a country. Such and 
such like are the incidents which make an Englishman in the 
States unhappy, and rouse his gall against the institutions of the 
country; — these things and the continued appliance of the irri- 
tating ointment of American braggadocio with which his sores 
are kept open. But though I was badly off on that railway plat- 
form, — worse off than I should have been in England, — all that 
crowd of porters round me were better off than our English por- 
ters. They had a "good time" of it. And this, O my English 
brother who hast travelled through the States and returned dis- 
gusted, is the fact throughout. Those men whose familiarity was 
so disgusting to you are having a good time of it. " They might 
be a little more civil," you say, "and yet read and write just as 
well." True ; but they are arguing in their minds that civility 
to you will be taken by you for subservience, or for an acknowl- 
edgment of superiority ; and looking at your habits of life, — yours 
and mine together, — I am not quite sure that they are altogether 
wrong. Have yon ever realized to yourself as a fact that the 
porter who carries your box has not made himself inferior to you 
by the very act of carrying that box? If not, that is the very 
lesson which the man wishes to teach you. 

If a man can forget his own miseries in his journeyings, and 
think of the people he comes to see rather than of himself, I think 
he will find himself driven to admit that education has made life 
for the million in the Northern States better than life for the mil- 
lion is with us. They have begun at the beginning, and have so 
managed that every one may learn to read and write, — have so 
managed that almost every one does learn to read and write. 
With us this cannot now be done. Population had come upon us 
in masses too thick for management before we had as yet acknowl- 
edged that it would be a good thing that these masses should be 
educated. Prejudices, too, had sprung up, and habits, and strong 
sectional feelings, all antagonistic to a great national system of edu- 
cation. We are, I suppose, now doing all that we can do ; but 
comparatively it is little. I think I saw some time since that the 
cost for gratuitous education, or education in part gratuitous, which 
had fallen upon the nation had already amounted to the sum of 
800,000/.; and I think also that I read in the document which 
revealed to me this fact, a very strong opinion that Government 
could not at present go much further. But if this matter were 
regarded in England as it is regarded in Massachusetts, — or rath- 
er, had it from some prosperous beginning been put upon a similar 



EDUCATIOIS" AND KELIGION. 265 

footing, 800,000/. would not have been esteemed a great expendi- 
ture for free education simply in the city of London. In 1857 
the public schools of Boston cost 70,000/., and these schools were 
devoted to a population of about 180,000 souls. Taking the pop- 
ulation of London at two-and-a-half millions, the whole sum now 
devoted to England would, if expended in the metropolis, make 
education there even cheaper than it is in Boston. In Boston dur- 
ing 1857 there Avere above 24,000 pupils at these public schools, 
giving more than one-eighth of the whole population. But I fear 
it would not be practicable for us to spend 800,000/. on the gra- 
tuitous education of London. Rich as we are, we should not know 
where to raise the money. In Boston it is raised by a separate 
tax. It is a thing understood, acknowledged, and made easy by 
being habitual, — as is our national debt. I do not know that 
Boston is peculiarly blessed, but I quote the instance as I have a 
record of its schools before me. At the three high schools in Bos- 
ton at which the average of pupils is 520, about 13/. per head is 
paid for free education. The average price per annum of a child's 
schooling throughout these schools in Boston is about 3/, per an- 
num. To the higher schools any boy or girl may attain without 
any expense, and the education is probably as good as can be 
given, and as for advanced. The only question is, whether it is 
not advanced further than may be necessary. Here, as at New 
York, I was almost startled by the amount of knowledge around 
me, and listened, as I might have done, to an examination in the- 
ology among young Brahmins. When a young lad explained in 
my hearing all the properties of the different levers as exemplified 
by the bones of the human body, I bowed my head before him in 
unaffected humility. We, at our English schools, never got be- 
yond the use of those bones which he described with such accu- 
rate scientific knowledge. In one of the girls' schools they were 
reading Milton, and when we entered were discussing the nature 
of the pool in which the Devil is described as wallowing. The 
question had been raised by one of the girls. A pool, so called, 
was supposed to contain but a small amount of water, and how 
could the Devil, being so large, get into it? Then came the origin 
of the word pool, — from " palus," a marsh, as we were told, some 
dictionary attesting to the fact, — and such a marsh might cover a 
large expanse. The * Palus Maeotis' was then quoted. And so 
we went on till Satan's theory of political liberty, 

"Better to reign in hell than sei-ve in heaven," 
was thoroughly discussed and understood. These girls of sixteen 
and seventeen got up one after another and gave their opinions on 

M 



266 NORTH AMERICA. 

the subject, — how far the Devil was right and how far he was 
manifestly v/roiig. I was attended by one of the directors or 
guardians of the schools, and the teacher, I thought, was a little 
embarrassed by her position. But the girls themselves were as 
easy in their demeanour as though they were stitching handker- 
chiefs at home. 

It is impossible to refrain from telling all this, and from making 
a little innocent fun out of the superexcellencies of these schools ; 
but the total result on my mind was very greatly iii their favour. 
And indeed the testimony came in both ways. Not only was I 
called on to form an opinion of what the men and women would 
become from the education which was given to the boys and girls, 
but also to say what must have been the education of the boys and 
girls from what I saw of the men and women. Of course it will 
be understood that I am not here speaking of those I met in socie- 
ty, or of their children, but of the working people, — of that class 
who find that a gratuitous education for their children is needful, 
if any considerable amount of education is to be given. The re- 
sult is to be seen daily in the whole intercourse of life. The coach- 
man who drives you, the man who mends your window, the boy 
who brings home your purchases, the girl who stitches your wife's 
dress, — they all carry with them sure signs of education, and show 
it in every word they utter. 

It will of course be understood that this is, in the separate 
States, a matter of State law ; indeed I may go further and say 
tliat it is in most of the States a matter of State constitution. It 
is by no means a matter of Federal constitution. The United 
States as a nation takes no heed of the education of its people. 
All that is left to the judgment of the separate States. In most 
of the thirteen original States provision is made in the written 
constitution for the general education of the people ; but this is 
not done in all. I find that it was more frequently done in the 
Northern or Freesoil States than in those which admitted slave- 
ry, — as might have been expected. In the constitutions of South 
Carolina and Virginia I find no allusion to the public provision 
for education, but in those of North Carolina and Georgia it is en- 
joined. The forty-first section of the constitution for North Car- 
olina enjoins that " schools shall be established by the legislature 
for the convenient instruction of youth with such salaries, to the 
masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low 
prices ;" showing that the intention here was to assist education, 
and not provide it altogether gratuitously. I think that provision 
for public education is enjoined in the constitutions of all the States 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 267 

admitted into the Union since the first federal kno^ was tied, ex- 
cept in that of Illinois. Vermont was the first so admitted, in 
1791, and Vermont declares that "a competent number of schools 
ought to be maintained in each town for the convenient instruc- 
tion of youth." Ohio was the second, in 1802, and Ohio enjoins 
that "the general assembly shall make such provisions by taxation 
or otherwise as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, 
will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools 
throughout the State; but no religious or other sect or sects shall 
ever have any exclusive right or control of any part of the school 
funds of this State." In Indiana, admitted in 1816, it is required 
that " the general assembly shall provide by law for a general and 
uniform system of common schools." Illinois was admitted next, 
in 1818; but the constitution of Illinois is silent on the subject 
of education. It enjoins, however, in lieu of this, that no person 
shall fight a duel or send a challenge ! If he do he is not only to 
be punished, but to be deprived for ever of the power of holding 
any office of honour or profit in the State. I have no reason, 
however, for supposing that education is neglected in IlHnois, or 
that duelling has been abolished. In Maine it is demanded that 
the towns — the whole country is divided into what are called towns 
— shall make suitable provision at their own expense for the sup- 
port and maintenance of public schools. 

Some of these constitutional enactments are most magniloquent- 
ly worded, but not always with precise grammatical correctness. 
That for the famous Bay State of Massachusetts runs as follows : — 
"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally 
among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation 
of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the 
opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of 
the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall 
be the duty of the legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods 
of this commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature and the 
sciences, and of all seminaries of them, especially the University at 
Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns ^ to 
encourage private societies and public institutions, by rewards and 
immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, com- 
merce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country ; 
to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and gen- 
eral benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, 
honesty and punctuality in all their dealings ; sincerity, good hu- 
mour, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the 
people." I must confess, that had the words of that little consti- 



268 NORTH AMERICA. 

tutional enactment been made known to me before I had seen its 
practical results, I should not have put much faith in it. Of all 
the public schools I have ever seen, — by public schools I mean 
schools for the people at large maintained at public cost, — those 
of Massachusetts are, I think, the best. But of all the educational 
enactments which I ever read, that of the same State is, I should 
say, the worst. In Texas now, of which as a State the people of 
Massachusetts do not think much, they have done it better. ''A 
general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation 
of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the 
legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support 
and maintenance of public schools." So say the Texians ; but 
then the Texians had the advantage of a later experience than any 
which fell in the way of the constitution-makers of Massachusetts. 

There is something of the magniloquence of the French style, — 
of the liberty, equality, and fraternity mode of eloquence in the 
preambles of most of these constitutions, which, but for their suc- 
cess, would have seemed to have prophesied loudly of failure. 
Those of New York and Fenns3dvania are the least so, and that 
of Massachusetts by far the most violently magniloquent. They 
generally commence by thanking God for the present civil and re- 
ligious liberty of the people, and by declaring that all men are born 
free and equal. New York and Pennsylvania, however, refrain 
from any such very general remarks. 

I am well aware that all these constitutional enactments are 
not likely to obtain much credit in England. It is not only that 
grand phrases fail to convince us, but that they carry to our senses 
almost an assurance of their own inefficiency. When we hear that 
a people have declared their intention of being henceforward bet- 
ter than their neighbours, and going upon a new theory that shall 
lead them direct to a terrestrial paradise, we button up our pockets 
and lock up our spoons. And that is what we have done very 
much as regards the Americans. We have walked with them 
and talked with them, and bought with them and sold with them ; 
but we have mistrusted them as to their internal habits and modes 
of life, thinking that their philanthropy was pretentious and that 
their theories were vague. Many cities in the States are but skel- 
etons of towns, the streets being there, and the houses numbered, — 
but not one house built out of ten that have been so counted up. 
We have regarded their institutions as we regard those cities, and 
have been specially willing so to consider them because of the fine 
language in which they have been paraded before us. They have 
been regarded as the skeletons of philanthropical systems, to which 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 269 

blood and flesh and muscle, and even skin are wanting. But it is 
at least but fair to inquire how far the promise made has been car- 
ried out. The elaborate wordings of the constitutions made by 
the French politicians in the days of their great revolution have 
always been to us no more than so many written grimaces ; but 
we should not have continued so to regard them had the political 
liberty which they promised followed upon the promises so mag- 
niloquently made. As regards education in the States, — at any 
rate in the northern and western States, — I think that the assur- 
ances put forth in the various written constitutions have been 
kept. If this be so, an American citizen, let him be ever so arro- 
gant, ever so impudent if you will, is at any rate a civilized being 
and on the road to that cultivation which will sooner or later di- 
vest him of his arrogance. Emollit mores. We quote here our old 
friend the colonel again. If a gentleman be compelled to confine 
his classical allusions to one quotation, he cannot do better than 
hang by that. 

But has education been so general, and has it had the desired 
result ? In the city of Boston, as I have said, I found that in 1857 
about one-eighth of the whole population were then on the books 
of the free public schools as pupils, and that about one-ninth of 
the population formed the average daily attendance. To these 
numbers of course must be added all pupils of the richer classes, — 
those for whose education their parents chose to pay. As nearly 
as I can learn, the average duration of each pupil's schooling is 
six years, and if this be figured out statistically, I think it will 
show that education in Boston reaches a very large majority — I 
must almost say the whole — of the population. That the educa- 
tion given in other towns of Massachusetts is not so good as that 
given in Boston I do not doubt, but I have reason to believe that 
it is quite as general. 

I have spoken of one of the schools of New York. In that city 
the public schools are apportioned to the wards, and are so ar- 
ranged that in each ward of the city there are public schools of 
diiFerent standing for the gratuitous use of the children. The 
population of the city of New York in 1857 was about 650,000, 
and in that year it is stated that there were 135,000 pupils in the 
schools. By this it would appear that one person in five through- 
out the city was then under process of education, — which state- 
ment, however, I cannot receive with implicit credence. It is, how- 
ever, also stated that the daily attendances averaged something less 
than 50,000 a day — and this latter statement probably implies 
some mistake in the former one. Taking the two together for 



270 NORTH AMERICA. 

what they are worth, they show, I think, that school teaching is 
not only brought within the reach of the population generally, but 
is used by almost all classes. At New York there are separate 
free schools for coloured children. At Philadelphia I did not see 
the schools, but I was assured that the arrangements there were 
equal to those at New York and Boston. Indeed I was told that 
they were infinitely better ; — but then I was so told by a Phila- 
delphian. In the State of Connecticut the public schools are cer- 
tainly equal to those in any part of the Union. As far as I could 
learn, education — what we should call advanced education — is 
brought within the reach of all classes in the northern and west- 
ern States of America, — and, I would wish to add here, to those 
of the Canadas also. 

So much for the schools, and now for the results. I do not 
know that anything impresses a visitor more strongly with the 
amount of books sold in the States, than the practice of selling 
them as it has been adopted in the railway cars. Personally the 
traveller will find the system very disagreeable, — as is everything 
connected with these cars. A young man enters during the jour- 
ney, — for the trade is carried out while the cars are travelling, as 
is also a very brisk trade in lollipops, sugar-candy, apples, and ham 
sandwiches, — the young tradesman enters the car firstly with a 
pile of magazines or of novels bound like magazines. These are 
chiefly the ' Atlantic,' published at Boston, ' Harper's Magazine,' 
published at New York, and a cheap series of novels published at 
Philadelphia. As he walks along he flings one at every passen- 
ger. An Englishman, when he is first introduced to this manner 
of trade, becomes much astonished. He is probably reading, and 
on a sudden he finds a fat, fluffy magazine, very unattractive in its 
exterior, dropped on to the page he is perusing. I thought at first 
that it was a present from some crazed philanthropist, who was 
thus endeavouring to disseminate literature. But I was soon un- 
deceived. The bookseller, having gone down the whole car and 
the next, returned, and beginning again where he had begun be- 
fore, picked up either his magazine or else the price of it. Then, 
in some half-hour, he came again, with an armful or basket of 
books, and distributed them in the same way. They were gener- 
ally novels, but not always. I do not think that any endeavour is 
made to assimilate the book to the expected customer. The ob- 
ject is to bring the book and the man together, and in this "way a 
very large sale is effected. The same thing is done with illustra- 
ted newspapers. The sale of political newspapers goes on so 
quickly in these cars that no such enforced distribution is neces- 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 271 

sary, I should say that the average consumption of newspapers 
by an American must amount to about three a day. At Wash- 
ington I begged the keeper of my lodgings to let me have a paper 
regularly, — one American newspaper being much the same to me 
as another, — and my host supplied me daily with four. 

But the numbers of the popular books of the day, printed and 
sold, afford the most conclusive proof of the extent to which edu- 
cation is carried in the States. The readers of Tennyson, Thack- 
eray, Dickens, Bulwer, Collins, Hughes, and — Martin Tupper, are 
to be counted by tens of thousand in the States, to the thousands 
by which they may be counted in our own islands. I do not 
doubt that I had fully fifteen copies of the ' Silver Cord' thrown 
at my head in different railway cars on the continent of America. 
Nor is the taste by any means confined to the literature of England. 
Longfellow, Curtis, Holmes, Hawthorne, Lowell, Emerson, and 
Mrs. Stowe, are ahnost as popular as their English rivals. I do 
not say whether or no the literature is well chosen, but there it is. 
It is printed, sold, and read. Tlie disposal of ten thousand copies 
of a work is no large sale in America of a book published at a dol- 
la,r ; but in England it is a large sale of a book brought out at five 
shillings. 

I do not remember that I ever examined the rooms of an Amer- 
ican without finding books or magazines in them. I do not speak 
here of the houses of my friends, as of course the same remark 
would apply as strongly in P^ngiand, but of the houses of persons 
presumed to earn their bread by the labour of their hands. The 
opportunity for such examination does not come daily; but when 
it has been in my power I have made it, and have always found 
signs of education. Men and women of the classes to which I al- 
lude talk of reading and writing as of arts belonging to them as a 
matter of course, quite as much as are the arts of eating and drink- 
ing. A porter or a farmer's servant in the States is not proud of 
reading and writing. It is to him quite a matter of course. The 
coachmen on their boxes and the boots as they sit in the halls of 
the hotels, have newspapers constantly in their hands. The young 
women have them also, and the children. The fact comes home 
to one at every turn, and at every hour, that the people are an edu- 
cated people. The whole of this question between North and 
South is as well understood by the servants as by their masters, 
is discussed as vehemently by the private soldiers as by the officers. 
The politics of the country and the nature of its constitution are 
familiar to every labourer. The very wording of the Declaration 
of Independence is in the memory of every lad of sixteen. Boys 



272 NORTH AMERICA. 

and girls of a younger age than that know why Slidell and Mason 
were arrested, and will tell you why they should have been given 
up, or why they should have been held in durance. The question 
of the war with England is debated by every native paviour and 
hodman of New York. 

I know what Englishmen will say in answer to this. They 
will declare that they do not want their paviours and hodmen to 
talk politics ; that they are as well pleased that their coachmen 
and cooks should not always have a newspaper in their hands ; 
that private soldiers will fight as well, and obey better, if they are 
not trained to discuss the causes which have brought them into the 
field. An English gentleman will think that his gardener will be a 
better gardener without than with any excessive political ardour ; 
and the English lady will prefer that her housemaid shall not have 
a very pronounced opinion of her own as to the capabilities of the 
cabinet ministers. But I would submit to all Englishmen and En- 
glishwomen who may look at these pages whether such an opinion 
or feeling on their part bears much, or even at all, upon the sub- 
ject. I am not saying that the man who is driven in the coach 
is better off because his coachman reads the paper, but that the 
coachman himself who reads the paper is better off than the coach- 
man who does not and cannot. I think that we are too apt, in 
considering the ways and habits of any people, to judge of them 
by the effect of those ways and habits on us, rather than by their 
effects on the owners of them. When we go among garlic-eaters, 
we condemn them because they are offensive to us ; but to judge 
of them properly we should ascertain whether or no the garlic be 
offensive to them. If we could imagine a nation of vegetarians 
hearing for the first time of our habits as flesh-eaters, we should 
feel sure that they would be struck with horror at our blood- 
stained banquets ; but when they came to argue with us, we 
should bid them inquire whether we flesh-eaters did not live lon- 
ger and do more than the vegetarians. When we express a dis- 
like to the shoeboy reading his newspaper, I fear we do so because 
we fear that the shoeboy is coming near our own heels. I know 
there is among us a strong feeling that the lower classes are better 
without politics, as there is also that they are better without crin- 
oline and artificial flowers ; but if politics and crinoline and arti- 
ficial flowers are good at all, they are good for all who can honest- 
ly come by them and honestly use them. The political coachman 
is perhaps less valuable to his master as a coachman than he would 
be without his politics, but he with his politics is more valuable to 
himself For myself, I do not like the Americans of the lower 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 273 

orders. I am not comfortable among them. They tread on my 
corns and offend me. They make my daily life unpleasant. But 
I do respect them. I acknowledge their intelligence and personal 
dignity. I know that they are men and women worthy to be so 
called ; I see that they are living as human beings in possession of 
reasoning faculties ; and I perceive that they owe this to the 
progress that education has made among them. 

After all, what is wanted in this world ? Is it not that men 
should eat and drink, and read and write, and say their prayers ? 
Does not that include everything, providing that they eat and 
drink enough, read and write without restraint, and say their 
prayers without hypocrisy ? When we talk of the advances of 
civilization, do we mean anything but this, that men who now eat 
and drink badly shall eat and drink well, and that those who can- 
not read and write now shall learn to do so, — the prayers follow- 
ing, as prayers will follow upon such learning? Civilization does 
not consist in the eschewing of garlic or the keeping clean of a 
man's finger-nails. It may lead to such delicacies, and probably 
will do so. But the man who thinks that civilization cannot ex- 
ist without them imagines that the church cannot stand without 
the spire. In the States of America men do eat and drink, and 
do read and write. 

But as to saying their prayers ? That, as far as I can see, has 
come also, though perhaps not in a manner altogether satisfactory, 
or to a degree which should be held to be sufficient. English- 
men of strong religious feeling will often be startled in America 
by the freedom with which religious subjects are discussed, and 
the ease with which the matter is treated ; but he will very rarely 
be shocked by that utter absence of all knowledge on the subject, 
— that total darkness, which is still so common among the lower 
orders in our own country. It is not a common thing to meet an 
American who belongs to no denomination of Christian worship, 
and who cannot tell you why he belongs to that which he has 
chosen. 

"But," it will be said, "all the intelligence and education of 
this people have not saved them from falling out among themselves 
and their friends, and running into troubles by which they will be 
ruined. Their political arrangements have been so bad, that in 
spite of all their reading and writing they must go to the wall." 
I venture to express an opinion that they will by no means go to 
the wall, and that they will be saved from such a destiny, if in no 
other way, then by their education. Of their political arrange- 
ments, as I mean before long to rush into that perilous subject, J 

M2 



274 NORTH AMERICA. 

will say nothing here. But no political convulsions, should such 
arise, — no revolution in the constitution, should such be necessary, 
— will have any wide effect on the social position of the people to 
their serious detriment. They have the great qualities of the 
Anglo-Saxon race, — industry, intelligence, and self-confidence ; and 
if these qualities will no longer suffice to keep such a people on 
their legs, the world must be coming to an end. 

I have said that it is not a common thing to meet an American 
who belongs to no denomination of Christian w^orship. This I 
think is so: but I would not wish to be taken as saying that relig- 
ion on that account stands on a satisfactory footing in the States. 
Of all subjects of discussion, this is the most difficult. It is one 
as to which most of us feel that to some extent we must trust to 
our prejudices rather than our judgments. It is a matter on which 
we do not dare to rely implicitly on our own reasoning faculties, 
and therefore throw ourselves on the opinions of those whom we 
believe to have been better men and deeper thinkers than our- 
selves. For myself, I love the name of State and Church, and be- 
lieve that much of our English well-being has depended on it. I 
have made up my mind to think that union good, and not to be 
turned away from that conviction. Nevertheless I am not pre- 
pared to argue the matter. One does not always carry one's proofs 
at one's finger-ends. 

But I feel very strongly that much of that which is evil in the 
structure of American politics is owing to the absence of any na- 
tional religion, and that something also of social evil has sprung 
from the same cause. It is not that men do not say their prayers. 
For aught I know, they may do so as frequently and as fervently, 
or more frequently and more fervently, than we do ; but there is 
a rowdinesSjifl maybe allowed to use such a word, in their man- 
ner of doing so wdiicli robs religion of that reverence which is, if 
not its essence, at any rate its chief protection. It is a part of 
their system that religion shall be perfectly free, and that no man 
shall be in any way constrained in that matter. Consequently, 
the question of a man's religion is regarded in a free-and-easy way. 
It is well, for instance, that a young lad should go somewhere on 
a Sunday; but a sermon is a sermon, and it does not much con- 
cern the lad's father whether his son hear the discourse of a free- 
thinker in the music-hall, or the eloquent but lengthy outpouring 
of a preacher in a Methodist chapel. Everybody is bound to have i 
a religion, but it does not much matter what it is. i 

The difficulty in which the first fathers of the Revolution found 
themselves on this question, is shown by the constitutions of the 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 275 

different States. There can be no doubt that the inhabitants of 
the New England States were, as things went, a strictly religious 
community. They had no idea of throwing over the worship of 
God, as the French had attempted to do at their Revolution. 
They intended that the new nation should be pre-eminently com- 
posed of a God-fearing people ; but they intended also that they 
should be a people free in everything, — free to choose their own 
forms of worship. They intended that the nation should be a 
Protestant people ; but they intended also that no man's con- 
science should be coerced in the matter of his own religion. It 
was hard to reconcile these two things, and to explain to the citi- 
zens that it behoved them to worship God, — even under penalties 
for omission ; but that it was at the same time open to them to 
select any form of worship that they pleased, however that form 
might differ from the practices of the majority. In Connecticut it 
is declared that it is the duty of all men to worship the Supreme 
Being, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, but that it is 
their right to render that worship in the mode most consistent 
with the dictates of their consciences. And then a few lines fur- 
ther down the article skips the great difficulty in a manner some- 
what disingenuous, and declares that each and every society of 
Christians in the State shall have and enjoy the same and equal 
privileges. But it does not say whether a Jew shall be divested 
of those privileges, or, if he be divested, how that treatment of him 
is to be reconciled with the assurance that it is every man's right 
to worship the Supreme Being in the mode most consistent with 
the dictates of his own conscience. 

In Rhode Island they were more honest. It is there declared 
that every man shall be free to worship God according to the dic- 
tates of his own conscience, and to profess and by argument to 
maintain his opinion in matters of religion ; and that the same 
shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or aifect his civil capacity. Here 
it is simply presumed that every man will worship a God, and no 
allusion is made even to Christianity. 

In Massachusetts they are again hardly honest. " It is the 
right," says the constitution, " as well as the duty of all men in 
society publicly and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Be- 
ing, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe." And then 
it goes on to say that every man may do so in what form he 
pleases ; but further down it declares that " every denomination 
of Christians, demeaning themselves peaceably and as good sub- 
jects of the commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection 
of the law." But what about those who are not Christians ? In 



276 NORTH AMERICA. 

New Hampshire it is exactly the same. It is enacted that — " Ev- 
ery individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience and reason." And 
that — " Every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves 
quietly and as good citizens of the State, shall be equally under 
the protection of the law." From all which it is, I think, mani- 
fest that the men who framed these documents, desirous above all 
things of cutting themselves and their people loose from every kind 
of trammel, still felt the necessity of enforcing religion, — of mak- 
ing it to a certain extent a matter of State duty. In the first con- 
stitution of North Carolina it is enjoined, — " That no person who 
shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant relig- 
ion, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or prof- 
it." But this was altered in the year 1836, and the words " Chris- 
tian religion" were substituted for " Protestant religion." 
r^^ In New England the Congregationalists are, I think, the domi- 
nant sect. In Massachusetts, and I believe in the other New En- 
gland States, a man is presumed to be a Congregationalist if he do 
not declare himself to be anything else ; so with us the Church of 
England counts aiU who do not specially have themselves counted 
elsewhere. The Congregationalist, as far as I can learn, is very 
near to a Presbyterian. In New England I think the Unitarians 
would rank next in number ; but a Unitarian in America is not 
the same as a Unitarian with us. Here, if I understand the na- 
ture of his creed, a Unitarian does not recognize the divinity of 
our Saviour. In America he does do so, but throws over the doc- 
rine of the Trinity. The Protestant Episcopalians muster strong 
in all the great cities, and I fancy that they would be regarded as 
taking the lead of the other rehgious denominations in New York. 
Their tendency is to high-church doctrines. I wish they had not 
found it necessary to alter the forms of our prayer-book in so many 
little matters, as to which there was no national expediency for 
such changes. But it was probably thought necessary that a new 
people should show their independence in all things. The Roman 
Catholics have a very strong party — as a matter of course — seeing 
how great has been the immigration from Ireland ; but here, as in 
Ireland — and as indeed is the case all the world over — the Roman 
Catholics are the hewers of wood and drawers of water. The 
Germans, who have latterly flocked into the States in such swarms 
that they have almost Germanized certain States, have of course 
their own churches. In every town there are places of worship 
for Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anabaptists, and every de- 
nomination of Christianity ; and the meeting-houses prepared for 



J 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION. 277 

these sects are not, as with us, hideous buildings contrived to in- 
spire disgust by the enormity of their ugliness, nor are they called 
Salem, Ebenezer, and Sion, nor do the ministers within them look 
in any way like the Deputy-Shepherd. The churches belonging 
to those sects are often handsome. This is especially the case in 
New York ; and the pastors are not unfrequently among the best 
educated and most agreeable men whom the traveller will meet. 
They are for the most part well paid ; and are enabled by their 
outward position to hold that place in the world's ranks which 
should always belong to a clergyman. I have not been able to ob- 
tain information from which I can state with anything like cor- 
rectness what may be the average income of ministers of the Gos-; 
pel in the northern States, but that it is much higher than the av-i 
erage income of our parish clergymen, admits, I think, of no doubt.j 
The stipends of clergymen in the American towns are higher than/ 
those paid in the country. The opposite to this, I think as a rule, 
is the case with us. 

I have said that religion in the States is rowdy. By that I 
mean to imply that it seems to me to be divested of that reveren- 
tial order and strictness of rule which, according to our ideas, 
should be attached to matters of religion. One hardly knows 
where the affairs of this world end, or where those of the next be- 
gin. When the holy men were had in at the lecture, were they 
doing stage-work or church-work? On hearing sermons, one is 
often driven to ask oneself whether the discourse from the pulpit 
be in its nature political or religious. I heard an Episcopalian 
Protestant clergyman talk of the scoffing nations of Europe — be- 
cause at that moment he was angry with England and France 
about Slidell and Mason. I have heard a chapter of the Bible 
read in Congress at the desire of a member, and very badly read. 
After which the chapter itself and the reading of it became the 
subject of a debate, partly jocose and partly acrimonious. It is a 
common thing for a clergyman to change his profession and follow 
any other pursuit. I know two or three gentlemen who w^ere 
once in that line of life, but have since gone into other trades. 
There is, I think, an unexpressed determination on the part of the 
people to abandon all reverence, and to regard religion from an al- 
together worldly point of view. They are willing to have relig- 
ion, as they are wdlling to have laws ; but they choose to make it 
for themselves. They do not object to pay for it, but they like to 
have the handling of the article for which they pay. As the de- 
scendants of Puritans and other godly Protestants, they will sub- 
mit to religious teaching, but as Republicans they will have no 



278 NORTH AMERICA. 

priestcraft. The French at their Revolution had the latter feel- 
ing without the former, and were therefore consistent with them- 
selves in abolishing all worship. The Americans desire to do the 
same thing politically, but infidelity has had no charms for them. 
Tliey say tiieir prayers, and then seem to apologize for doing so, as 
though it were hardly the act of a free and enlightened citizen, 
justified in ruling himself as he pleases. All this to me is rowdy. 
1 know no other word by which I can so well describe it. 

Nevertheless the nation is religious in its tendencies, and prone 
to acknowledge the goodness of God in all things. A man there 
is expected to belong to some church, and is not, I think, well 
looked on if he profess that he belongs to none. Pie may be a 
Svvedenborgian, a Quaker, a Muggletonian ; — anything will do. 
But it is expected of him that he shall place himself under some 
flag, and do his share in supporting the flag to which he belongs. 
This duty is, I think, generally fulfilled. 



CHAPTER XX. 

FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 

From Boston, on the 27th of ISTovember, my wife returned 
to England, leaving me to prosecute my jom*ney southward to 
Washington by myself. I shall never forget the political feel- 
ing which prevailed in Boston at that time, or the discussions 
on the subject of Slidell and Mason, in which I felt myself 
bound to take a part. Up to that period I confess that my 
sympathies had been strongly with tlie northern side in the 
general question ; and so they were still, as far as Icould divest 
the matter of its English bearings. I had always thought, and 
do think, that a war for the suppression of the southern rebel- 
lion could not have been avoided "by the North without an ab- 
solute loss of its political prestige. Mr. Lincoln was elected 
President of the United States in the autumn of 1860, and any 
steps taken by him or his party towards a peaceable solution 
of the difficulties which broke out immediately on his election, 
must have been taken before he entered upon his office. South 
Carolina threatened secession as soon as Mr. Lincoln's election 
was known, while yet there were four months left of Mr. Bu- 
chanan's Government. That Mr. Buchanan might, during those 
four months, have prevented secession, few men, I think, will 
doubt when the history of the time shall be written. But in- 
stead of doing so he consummated secession. Mr. Buchanan is 
a northern man, a Pennsylvanian ; but he was opposed to the 



FKOM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. . 279 

party whicli had bronght in Mr. Lincoln, having thriven as a 
politician by his adherence to southern principles. Kow, when 
the struggle came, he could not forget his party in his duty as 
President. General Jackson's position was much the same 
when Mr. Calhoun, on the question of the tariff, endeavoured 
to produce secession in South Carolina thirty years ago, in 1832 
— excepting in this, that Jackson was himself a southern man. 
But Jackson liad a strong conception of the position which he 
held as President of the United States. He put his foot on se- 
cession and crushed it, forcing Mr. Calhoun, as senator from 
South Carolina, to vote for tliat compromise as to the tariff 
which the Government of the day proposed. South Carolina 
was as eager in 1832 for secession as she was in 1859-1860 ; but 
the Government was in the hands of a strong man and an hon- 
est one. Mr. Calhoun would have been hung had he carried 
out his threats. But Mr. Buchanan had neither the power nor 
the honesty of General Jackson, and thus secession was in fact 
consummated during his Presidency. 

But Mr. Lincoln's party, it is said — and I believe truly said — 
might have prevented secession by making overtures to the 
South, or accepting overtures from the South, before Mr. Lin- 
coln himself had been inaugurated. That is to say, — if Mr. 
Lincoln and the band of politicians Avho with him had pushed 
their way to the top of their party, and w^ere about to fill the 
offices of State, chose to throw overboard the political convic- 
tions which had bound them together and insured their suc- 
cess, — if they' could bring themselves to adopt on the subject 
of slavery the ideas of their opponents, — then the war might 
have been avoided, and secession also avoided. I do believe 
that had Mr. Lincoln at that time submitted himself to a com- 
promise in favour of the Democrats, promising the support of 
the Government to certain acts which would in fact have been 
in favour of slavery, South Carolina would again have been 
foiled for the time. For it must be understood, that though 
South Carolina and the Gulf States might have accepted cer- 
tain compromises, they would not have been satisfied in so ac- 
cepting them. They desired secession, and nothing short of 
secession would, in truth, have been acceptable to them. But 
in doing so Mr. Lincoln would have been the most dishonest 
politician even in America. The North would have been in 
arms against him ; and any true spirit of agreement between 
the cotton-growing slave States and the manufacturing States 
of the North, or the agricultural States of the West, would 
•have been as far off and as improbable as it is now. Mr. Crit- 
tenden, who proffered his compromise to the Senate in Deeem- 



280 . NORTH AMERICA. 

ber, i860, was at that time one of the two senators from Ken- 
tucky, ^ slave State. He now sits in the Lower House of Con- 
gress as a member from the same State. Kentucky is one of 
those border States which has found it impossible to secede, 
and almost equally impossible to remain in the Union. It is 
one of the States into which it was most probable that the war 
would be carried ; — Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri being the 
three States which have suffered the most in this way. Of Mr. 
Crittenden's own family, some have gone with secession and 
some with the Union. His name had been honourably con- 
nected with American politics for nearly forty years, and it is 
not surprising that he should have desired a compromise. His 
terms were in fact these, — a return to the Missouri compromise, 
under which the Union pledged itself that no slavery should 
exist north of 36.30 N. lat. unless wiiere it had so existed prior 
to the date of that compromise ; a pledge that Congress would 
not interfere with slavery in the individual States, — which un- 
der the constitution it cannot do ; and a pledge that the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law should be carried out by the northern States.- 
Such a compromise might seem to make a very small demand 
on the forbearance of the Republican party, w^hich Avas now 
dominant. The repeal of the Missouri coraj)romise had been 
to them a loss, and it might be said that its re-enactment would 
be a gain. But since that compromise had been repealed, vast 
territories south of the line in question, had been added to the 
Union, and the re-enactment of that compromise would hand 
those vast regions over to absolute slavery, as had been done 
with Texas. This might be all very well for Mr. Crittenden in 
the slave State of Kentucky — for Mr. Crittenden, although a 
slave-owner, desired to perpetuate the Union ; but it would 
not have been well for New England or for the West. As for 
the second proposition, it is w^ell understood that under the 
constitution Congress cannot interfere in any way in the ques- 
tion of slavery in the individual States. Congress has no morp 
constitutional power to abolish slavery in Maryland than she 
has to introduce it into Massachusetts. No such j^ledge, tliere- 
fore, was necessary on either side. But such a pledge given 
by the North and West would have acted as an additional tie 
upon them, binding them to the finality of a constitutional en- 
actment to which, as was of course well known, they strongly 
object. There was no question of Congress interfering with 
slavery, with the purport of extending its area by special en- 
actment, and therefore by such a pledge the North and West 
could gain nothing; but the South would in prestige have 
gained much. 



FKOM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 281 

^But that third proposition as to the Fugitive Slave Law and 
the faithful execution of that law by the northern and west- 
ern States would, if acceded to by Mr. Lincoln's party, have 
amounted to an unconditional surrender of everything. What ! 
Massachusetts and Connecticut carry out the Fugitive Slave 
Law ! Ohio carry out the Fugitive Slave Law after the ' Dred 
Scot' decision and all its consequences ! Mr. Crittenden might 
as well have asked Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio to 
introduce slavery within their own lands. The Fugitive Slave 
Law was then, as it is now, the law of the land ; it was the law 
of the United States as voted by Congress and passed by the 
Pi-esident, and acted on by the Supreme Judge of the United 
States' Court. But it was a law to which no free State had 
submitted itself, or would submit itself " What !" the English 
^ reader will say, — " sundry States in the Union refuse to obey 
the laws of the Union, — refuse to submit to the constitutional 
action of their own Congress !" Yes. Such has been the po- 
sition of this country ! To such a dead lock has it been brought 
by the attempted but impossible amalgamation of North and 
South. Mr. Crittenden's compromise was moonshine. It was 
utterly out of the question that the free States should bind 
themselves to the rendition of escaped slaves, — or that Mr. 
Lincoln, who had just been brought in by their voices, should 
agree to any compromise which should attempt so to bind them. 
Lord Palmerston might as well attempt to re-enact the Corn 
Laws. 

Then comes the question whether Mr. Lincoln or his Govern- 
ment could have prevented the war after he had entered upon 
his office in March, 1861 ? I do not suppose that any one thinks 
that he could have avoided secession and avoided the war also ; 
— that by any ordinary effort of Government he could have se- 
cured the adhesion of the Gulf States to the Union after the first 
shot had been fired at Fort Sumter. The general opinion in 
England is, I take it, this, — that secession then was manifestly 
necessary, and that all the bloodshed and money-shed, and all 
this destruction of commerce and of agriculture might have 
been prevented by a graceful adhesion to an indisputable fact. 
But there are some facts, even some indisputable facts, to which 
a graceful adherence is not possible. Could King Bomba have 
welcomed Garibaldi to Naples ? Can the Pope shake hands 
with Victor Emmanuel ? Could the English have surrendered 
to their rebel colonists peaceable possession of the colonies? 
The indisputability of a fact is not very easily settled while the 
circumstances are in course of action by which the fact is to be 



282 NORTH AMERICA. 

decided. The men of the northern States have not believed in 
the necessity of secession, but have beHevedit to be their duty 
to enforce the adherence of these States to the Union. Tlie 
American Governments liave been much given to compromises, 
but had Mr. Lincoln attempted any compromise by which any 
one southern State could have been let out of the Union, he 
would have been impeached. In all probability the whole con- 
stitution would have gone to ruin, and the presidency would 
have been at an end. At any rate, his presidency would have 
been at an end. When secession, or in other words, rebellion 
was once commenced, he had no alternative but the use of co- 
ercive measures for putting it down ; — that is, he had no alter- 
native but war. It is not to be supposed that he or his minis- 
try contemplated such a war as has existed, — with 600,000 men 
in arms on one side, each man with his whole belongings main- 
tained at a cost of 150^. per annum, or ninety millions sterling 
per (innum for the army. Nor did we, when we resolved to 
put down the French revolution, think of such a national debt 
as we now owe. These things grow by degrees, and the mind 
also grows in becoming used to them ; but I cannot see that 
there was any moment at which Mr. Lincoln could have stayed 
his hand and cried Peace ! It is easy to say now that acquies- 
cence in secession would have been better than war, but there 
lias been no moment when he could have said so with any avail. 
It was incumbent on him to put down rebellion, or to be put 
down by it. So it was with us in America in 1776. 

I do not think that we in England have quite sufficiently 
taken all this into consideration. We have been in the habit 
of exclaiming very loudly against the war, execrating its cru- 
elty and anathematizing its results, as though the cruelty were 
all superfluous and the results unnecessary. But I do not re- 
member to have seen any statement as to what the northern 
States should have done, — what they should have done, that is, 
as regards the South, or when they should have done it. It 
seems to me that we have decided as regards them that civil 
war is a very bad thing, and that therefore civil war should be 
avoided. But bad things cannot always be avoided. It is this 
feeling on our part that has produced so much irritation in them 
against us, — reproducing, of course, irritation on our part against 
them. They cannot understand that we should not wish them 
to be successful in putting down a rebellion ; nor can Ave un- 
derstand why they should be outrageous against us for stand- 
ing aloof, and keei^ing our hands, if it be only possible, out of 
the fire. 



FROM BOSTON TO ^^'ASHINGTOX. 283 

When Slidell and Mason Avere arrested, my opinions were 
not changed, but my feehiigs were altered. I seemed to ac- 
knowledge to myself that the ti'eatment to which England had 
been subjected, and the manner in which that treatment was 
discussed, made it necessary that I should regard the question 
as it existed between England and the States, rather than in its 
reference to the North and South. I had always felt that as 
regarded the action of our Government we had been sans re- 
proche ; that in arranging our conduct we had thought neither 
of money or political influence, but simply of the justice of the 
case, — promising to abstain from all interference and keeping 
that promise faithfully. It had been quite clear to me that the 
men of the North, and the "women also, had failed to ap2:)reciate 
this, looking, as men in a quarrel always do look, for special fa- 
vour on their side. Everything that England did was wrong. 
If a private merchant, at his own risk, took a cargo of rifles to 
some southern port, that act to northern eyes "SA^as an act of 
English interference, — of favour shown to the South by En- 
gland as a nation ; but twenty shiploads of rifles sent from 
Enofland to the North mere sio-nifled a brisk trade and a desire 
for profit. The 'James Adger,' a northern man-of-war, was re- 
fitted at Southampton as a matter of course. There was no 
blame to England for tliat. But the ' Nashville,' belonging to 
the Confederates, should not have been allowed into English 
waters! It was useless to speak of neutrality. No Northerner 
would understand that a rebel could have any mutual right. 
The South had no claim in his eyes as a belligerent, though the 
North claimed all those rights wdiich he could only enjoy by 
the fact of there being a recognized war between him and his 
enemy the South. The North was learning to hate England, 
and day by day the feeling grew upon me that, much as I 
wished to espouse the cause of the North, I should have to es- 
pouse the cause of my own country. Then Slidell and Mason 
were arrested, and I began to calculate liow long I might re- 
main in the country. "There is no danger. We are quite 
right," the lawyers said. " There are Yattel and Puflendorff" and 
Stowell and Phillimore and AYheaton," said the ladies. "Am- 
bassadors are contraband all the world over, — more so than 
gunpowder; and if taken in a neutral bottom, &c." I wonder 
why ships are always called bottoms when spoken of with legal 
technicality? But neither the lawyers nor the ladies convinced 
me. I know that there are matters wdiich w^ill be read not in 
accordance with any written law, but in accordance with the 
bias of the reader's mind. Such law^s are made to be strained 



284 NOETH AMERICA. 

any Avay. I knew how ife would be. All the logal acumen of 
New Eno^land declared the seizure of Slidell and Mason to be 
right. The legal acumen of Old England has declared it to be 
wrong ; and I have no doubt that the ladies of Old England can 
prove it to be wrong out of Vattel, PulFendorff, Stowell, Philli- 
more, and Wheaton. 

" But there's Grotius," I said, to an elderly female at New 
York, who had quoted to me some half-dozen writers on inter- 
national law, thinking thereby that I should trump her last card. 
" I've looked into Grotius too," said she, " and as far as I can 
see," &G. &G. &G. So I had to fall back again on the convic- 
tions to which instinct and common sense had brought me. I 
never doubted for a moment that those convictions would be 
supported by English lawyers. 

I left Boston with a sad feeling at my heart that a quarrel 
was imminent between England and the States, and that any 
such quarrel must be destructive to the cause of the North. I 
had never believed that the States of New England and the 
Gulf States would again become parts of one nation, but I had 
thought that the terms of separation would be dictated by the 
North, and not by the South. I had felt assured that South 
Carolina and the Gulf States, across from the Atlantic to Tex- 
as, would succeed in forming themselves into a separate con- 
federation ; but I had still hoped that Maryland,Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri might be saved to the grander empire of 
the North, and that thus a great blow to slavery might be the 
consequence of this civil war. But such ascendancy could only 
fall to the North by reason of their command of the sea. The 
northern ports were all open, and the southern ports were all 
closed. But if this should be reversed. If by England's ac- 
tion the southern ports should be opened, and the northern 
ports closed, the North could have no fair expectation of suc- 
cess. The ascendancy in that case would all be with the South. 
Up to that moment,— the Christmas of 18G1, — Maryland was 
kept in subjection by the guns which General Dix had planted 
over the city of Baltimore. Two-thirds of Virginia were in 
active rebellion, coerced originally into that position by her de- 
pendence for the sale of her slaves on the cotton States. Ken- 
tucky was doubtful, and divided. When the federal troops pre- 
vailed, Kentucky was loyal ; when the Confederate troops pre- 
vailed, Kentucky was rebellious. The condition in Missouri 
was much the same. Those. four States, by two of which the 
capital, witTi its district of Columbia, is surrounded, might be 
gained, or might be lost. And these four States are susceptible 



FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 285 

of white labour, — as much so as Ohio and Illinois, — are rich in 
fertility, and rich also in all associations which must be dear to 
Americans. Without Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky, with- 
out the Potomac, the Chesapeake, and Mount Vernon, the North 
would indeed be shorn of its glory ! But it seemed to be in the 
power of the North to say under what terms secession should 
take place, and Avhere should be the line. A senator from 
South Carolina could never again sit in the same chamber with 
one from Massachusetts ; but there need be no such bar against 
the border States. So much might at any rate be gained, and 
might stand hereafter as the product of all that money spent on 
600,000 soldiers. But if the Northerners should now elect to 
throw themselves into a quarrel with England, if in the gratifi- 
cation of a shameless braggadocio they should insist on doing 
what they liked, not only with their own, but with the proper- 
ty of all others also, it certainly did seem as though utter ruin 
must aAvait their cause. With England, or one might say with 
Europe, against them, secession must be accomj^lished, not on 
northern terms, but on terms dictated by the South. The 
choice was then for them to make ; and just at that time it 
seemed as though they were resolved to throw away every 
good card out of their hand. Such had been the ministerial 
Avisdom of Mr. Seward. I remember hearing the matter dis- 
cussed in easy terms by one of the United States senators. 
" Remember, Mr. Trollope," he said to me, " Ave don't Avant a 
Avar Avith England. If the choice is given to us, Ave had rather 
not fight England. Fighting is a bad thing. But remember 
this also, Mr. Trollope — that if the matter is pressed on us, Ave 
have no great objection. We had rather not, but Ave don't 
care much one Avay or the other." What one individual may 
say to another is not of much moment, but this senator Avas ex- 
pressing the feelings of his constituents, Avho Avere the legisla- 
ture of the State from Avhence he came. He Avas expressing 
the general idea on the subject of a large body of Americans. 
It was not that he and his State had really no objection to the 
Avar. Such a Avar loomed terribly large before the minds of 
them all. They knew it to be fraught Avith the saddest conse- 
quences. It Avas so regarded in the mind of that senator. But 
the braggadocio could not be omitted. Had he omitted it, he 
would have been untrue to his constituency. 

When I left Boston for Washington nothing was as yet 
knoAvn of what the English Government or the English laAV- 
yers might say. This Avas in the first week in December, and 
the expected voice from England could not be heard till the 



286 NOETH AMERICA. 

end of the second week. It was a period of great suspense, 
and of great sorrow also to the more sober-minded Americans. 
To me the idea of such a war was terrible. It seemed that in 
these days all the liopes of our youth were being shattered. 
That poetic turning of the sword into a sickle, which gladden- 
ed our hearts ten or twelve years since, had been clean banish- 
ed from men's minds. To belong to a peace-party was to be 
either a flmatic, an idiot, or a driveller. The arts of war had 
become everything. Armstrong guns, themselves indestructi- 
ble, but capable of destroying everything within sight, and most 
things out of sight, Avere the only recognized results of man's 
inventive faculties. To build bigger, stronger, and more ships 
than the French was England's glory. To hit a speck with a 
rifle bullet at 800 yards' distance was an Englishman's first 
duty. Tlie ]^roper use for a young man's leisure hours was the 
practice of drilling. All this had come upon us with very quick 
steps, since the beginning of the Russian war. But if fighting 
must needs be done, one did not feel special grief at fighting a 
Russian. That the Indian mutiny should be put down was a 
matter of course. That those Chinese rascals should be forced 
into the harness of civilization was a good thing. That Eng- 
land should be as strong as France, — or, perhaps, if possible, a 
little stronger, — recommended itself to an Englishman's mind 
as a State necessity. But a war with the States of America ! 
In thinking of it I began to believe that the world was going 
backwards. Over sixty millions sterling of stock — railway 
stock and such like — are held in America by Englishmen, and 
the chances would be that before such a war could be finished 
the whole of that would be confiscated. Family connections 
between the States and the British isles are almost as close as 
between one of those islands and another. The commercial in- 
tercourse between the two countries has given bread to mil- 
lions of Englishmen, and a break in it would rob millions of 
their bread. These people speak our language, use our pray- 
ers, read our books, are ruled by our laws, dress themselves in 
our image, are warm with our blood. They have all our vir- 
tues; and their vices are our own too, loudly as we call out 
against them. They are our sons and our daughters, the source 
of our greatest pride, and as we grow old they should be the 
staff of our age. Such a war as we should now wage with the 
States would be an unloosing of hell upon all that is best upon 
the world's surface. If in such a war we beat the Americans, 
they with their proud stomachs would never forgive us. If 
they should be victors, we should never forgive ourselves. I 



FROM BOSTON TO AV^\StIINGTOX. 287 

certainly could not bring myself to speak of it with the equa- 
nimity of ray friend the senator. 

I went through New York to Philadelj^hia and made a short 
visit to the latter town. Philadelphia seems to me to have 
thrown off its Quaker garb, and to present itself to the w^orld 
in the garments ordinarily assumed by large cities ; by which 
I intend to express my opinion that the Philadelphians are not 
in these latter days any better than their neighbours. I am 
not sure Avhether in some respects they may not perhaps be 
worse. Quakers, — Quakers absolutely in the very flesh of close 
bojmets and brown knee-breeches, — are still to be seen there ; 
but they are not numerous, and w^ouldnot strike the eye if one 
did not specially look for a Quaker at Philadelphia. It is a 
large town with a very large hotel, — there are no doubt half- 
a-dozen large hotels, but one of them is specially great, — with 
long straight streets, good shops and markets, and decent com- 
fortable-looking houses. The houses of Philadelphia generally 
are not so large as those of other great cities in the States. 
They are more modest than those of New York, and less com- 
modious than those of Boston. Their most striking append- 
age is the marble steps at the front doors. Two doors as a 
rule enjoy one set of steps, on the outer edges of which there 
is generally no parapet or raised curb-stone. This, to my eye, 
gave the houses an unfinished appearance, — as though the mar- 
ble ran short, and no further expenditure could be made. The 
frost came when I was there, and then all these steps were 
covered up in Avooden cases. 

The city of Philadelphia lies between the tw^o rivers, the 
Delaware and the Schuylkill. Eight chief streets run from 
river to river, and twenty-four cross-streets bisect the eight at 
right angles. The long streets are, wdththe exception of Mar- 
ket Street, called by the names of trees, — chesnut, walnut, pine, 
spruce, mulberry, vine, and so on. The cross-streets are all 
called by their numbers. In the long streets the numbers of 
the houses are not consecutive, but follow the numbers of the 
cross streets ; so that a person living in Chesnut Street between 
Tenth Street and Eleventh Street, and ten doors from Tenth 
Street, w^ould live at No. 1010. The opposite house would be 
No. 1011. It thus follows that the number of the house indicates 
the exact block of houses in which it is situated. I do not 
like the right-angled building of these towns, nor do I like the 
sound of Twentieth Street and Thirtieth Street ; but I must ac- 
knowledge that the arrangement in Philadelphia has its con- 
venience. In New York I found it by no means an easy thing 
to arrive at the desired localitv. 



288 NORTH AMERICA. 

They boast in Pliiladelpliia that they have half a million in- 
habitants. If this be taken as a true calculation, Philadelphia 
is in size the fourth city in the world, — putting out of the 
question the cities of China, as to Avhich we have heard so 
much and believe so little. But in making this calculation the 
citizens include the population of a district on some sides ten 
miles distant from Philadelphia. It takes in other towns con- 
nected with it by railway, but separated by large spaces of 
open country. American cities are very proud of their popu- 
lation, but if they all counted in this way, there would soon be 
no rural population left at all. There is a very fine htink at 
Philadelphia, — and Philadelphia is a town somewhat celebrated 
in its banking history. My remarks here, however, apply sim- 
ply to the external building, and not to its internal honesty and 
wisdom, or to its commercial credit. 

In Philadelphia also stands the old house of Congress, — the 
house in which the Congress of the United States was held pre- 
vious to 1800, when the Government, and the Congress with 
it, were moved to the new city of Washington. I believe, 
however, that the first Congress, proj^erly so called, was assem- 
bled at New York in 1789, the date of the inauguration of the 
first President. It was, however, here, in this building at Phil- 
adelphia, that the independence of the Union was declared in 
1776, and that the constitution of the United States was 
framed. 

Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia for its capital, was once the 
leading State of the Union, — leading by a long distance. At 
the end of the last century it beat all the other States in popu- 
lation, but has since been surpassed by ISTew York in all re- 
spects, — in population, commerce, wealth, and general activity. 
Of course it is known that Pennsylvania was granted to Will- 
iam Penn, the Quaker, by Charles II. I cannot completely un- 
derstand what was the meaning of such grants, — how far they 
implied absolute possession in the territory, or how far they 
confirmed simply the power of settling and governing a colony. 
In this case a very considerable property was confirmed, as the 
claim made by Penn's children after Penn's death were bought 
up by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 130,000^. ; which 
in those days was a large price for almost any landed estate on 
the other side pf the Atlantic. 

Pennsylvania lies directly on the borders of slave land, being 
immediately north of Maryland. Mason and Dixon's line, of 
which we hear so often, and which was first established as the 
division between slave soil and free soil, runs between Pennsyl- 



FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 289 

vania and Maryland. The little State of Delaware, which lies 
between Maryland and the Atlantic, is also tainted with slavery; 
but the stain is not heavy nor indelible. In a population of a 
hundred and twelve thousand there are not two thousand 
slaves, and of these the owners generally would willingly rid 
themselves if they could. It is, however, a point of honour 
with these owners, as it is also in Maryland, not to sell their 
slaves ; and a man who cannot sell his slaves must keep them. 
Were he to enfranchise them and send them about their busi- 
ness, they would come back upon his hands. Were he to en- 
franchise them and pay them wages for work, they would get 
the wages but he would not get the work. They would get 
the wages, but at the end of three months they would still fall 
back upon his hands in debt and distress, looking to him for 
aid and comfort as a child looks for it. It is not easy to get 
rid of a slave in a slave State. That question of enfranchising 
slaves is not one to be very readily solved. 

In Pennsylvania the right of voting is confined to free white 
men. In New York the coloured free men have the right to 
vote, providing they have a certain small property qualification, 
and have been citizens for three years in the State ; — whereas 
a white man need have been a citizen but for ten days, and 
need have no property qualification ; from which it is seen that 
the position of the negro becomes worse, or less like that of a 
white man, as the border of slave land is more nearly reached. 
But in the teeth of this embargo on coloured men, the consti- 
tution of Pennsylvania asserts broadly that all men are born 
equally free and independent. One cannot conceive how two 
clauses can have found their way into the same document so 
absolutely contradictory to each other. The first clause says 
that white men shall vote, and that black men shall not, which 
means that all political action shall be confined to white men. 
The second clause says that all men are born equally free and 
independent ! 

In Philadelphia I for the first time came across live seces- 
sionists, — secessionists who pronounced themselves to be such. 
I will not say that I had met in other cities men who falsely 
declared themselves true to the Union ; but I had fancied, in 
regard to some, that their words were a little stronger than 
their feelings. When a man's bread, — and much more, when 
the bread of his wife and children — depends on his professing 
a certain line of political conviction, it is very hard for him to 
deny his assent to the truth of the argument. One feels that 
a man under such circumstances is bound to be convinced, un- 

isr 



290 NOKTH AMERICA. 

less he be in a position which may make a stanch adherence to 
opposite politics a matter of grave public importance. In the 
North I had fancied that I could sometimes read a secessionist 
tendency under a cloud of unionist protestations. But in Phil- 
adelphia men did not seem to think it necessary to have re- 
course to such a cloud. I generally found in mixed society, 
even there, that the discussion of secession was not permitted ; 
l)ut in society that was not mixed, I heard very strong opin- 
ions expressed on each side. With the unionists nothing was 
so strong as the necessity of keeping Slidell and Mason. When 
I suggested that the English Government would probably re- 
quire their surrender, I was talked down and ridiculed. " Nev- 
er that ; come what may." Then, within half an hour, I would 
be told by a secessionist that England must demand reparation 
if she meant to retain anyplace among the great nations of the 
world ; but he also would declare that the men would not be 
surrendered. " She must make the demand," the secessionist 
would say, " and then there will be war ; and after that we 
shall see whose ports will be blockaded!" The Southerner 
has ever looked to England for some breach of the blockade, 
quite as strongly as the North has looked to England for sym- 
pathy and aid in keej^ing it. 

The railway from Philadelphia to Baltimore passes along 
the top of Chesapeake Bay and across the Susquehanna river; 
at least the railway cars do so. On one side of that river they 
are run on to a huge ferryboat, and are again run off at the 
other side. Such an operation would seem to be one of diffi- 
culty to us under any circumstances ; but as the Susquehanna 
is a tidal river, rising and faUing a considerable number offset, 
the natural impediment in the way of such an enterprise would, 
I think, have staggered us. We should have built a bridge 
costing two or three miUions sterling, on which no conceivable 
amount of traffic would pay a fair dividend. Here, in cross- 
ing the Susquehanna, the boat is so constructed that its deck 
shall be level with the line of the railway at half tide, so that 
the inclined plane from the shore down ta the boat, or from 
the shore up to the boat, shall never exceed half the amount of 
the rise or fall. One would suppose that the most intricate 
machinery would have been necessary for such an arrangement; 
but it was all rough and simple, and apparently managed by 
two negroes. We should employ a small corps of engineers to 
conduct such an operation, and men and women would be de- 
tained in their carriages under all manner of threats as to the 
peril of life and limb ; but here everybody was expected to 



FKOM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 291 

look out for himself. The cars were dragged up the inclined 
plane by a hawser attached to an engine, which hawser, had the 
stress broken it, as I could not but fancy probable, would have 
flown back and cut to pieces a lot of us who were standing in 
front of the car. But I do not think that any such accident 
would have caused very much attention. Life and limbs are 
not held to be so precious here as they are in England. It may 
be a question whether with us they are not almost too precious. 
Regarding railways in America generally, as to the relative 
safety of which, when compared with our own, we have not in 
England a high opinion, I must say that I never saw any acci- 
dent or in any way became conversant with one. It is said 
that large numbers of men and women are slaughtered from 
time to time on different lines ; but if it be so, the newspapers 
make very light of such cases. I myself have seen no such 
slaughter, nor have I even found myself in the vicinity of a 
broken bone. Beyond the Susquehanna we passed over a 
creek of the Chesapeake Bay on a long bridge. The whole 
scenery here is very pretty, and the view up the Susquehanna 
is fine. This is the bay which divides the State of Maryland 
into two parts, and which is blessed beyond all other bays by 
the possession of canvas-back ducks. Nature has done a great 
deal for the State of Maryland, but in nothing more than in 
sending thither these web-footed birds of Paradise. 

Nature has done a great deal for Maryland ; and Fortune 
also has done much for it in these latter days in directing the 
war from its territory. But for the peculiar position of Wash- 
ington as the capital, all that is now being done in Virginia 
would have been done in Maryland, and I must say that the 
Marylanders did their best to bring about such a result. Had 
the presence of the war been regarded by the men of Balti- 
more as an unalloyed benefit, they could not have made a great- 
er struggle to bring it close to them. Nevertheless fate has so 
far sjDared them. 

As the position of Maryland and the course of events as they 
took place in Baltimore on the commencement of secession 
had considerable influence both in the North and in the South, 
I will endeavour to explain how that State was affected, and 
how the question was affected by that State. Maryland, as I 
have said before, is a slave State lying immediately south of 
Mason and Dixon's line. Small portions both of Virginia and 
of Delaware do run north of Maryland, but practically Mary- 
land is the frontier State of the slave States. It was therefore 
of much importance to know which way Maryland would go 



292 NORTH AMERICA. 

in the event of secession among the slave States becoming gen- 
eral ; and of much also to ascertain whether it could secede if 
desirous of doing so. I am inclined to think that as a State it 
was desirous of following Virginia, though there are many in 
Maryland who deny this very stoutly. But it was at once ev- 
ident that if loyalty to the North could not be had in Mary- 
land of its own free will, adherence to the North must be en- 
forced upon Maryland. Otherwise the city of Washington 
icould not be maintained as the existing capital of the nation. 

The question of the fidelity of the State to the Union Avas 
first tried by the arrival at Baltimore of a certain Commission- 
er from the State of Mississippi, wdio visited that city with the 
object of inducing secession. It must be understood that Bal- 
timore is the commercial capital of Maryland, whereas Annap- 
olis is the seat of Government and the legislature — or is, in oth- 
er terms, the political capital. Baltimore is a city containing 
230,000 inhabitants, and is considered to have as strong and 
perhaps as violent a mob as any city in the Union. Of the 
above number 30,000 are negroes and 2,000 are slaves. The 
Commissioner made his appeal, telling his tale of southern 
grievances, declaring, among other things, that secession was 
not intended to break up the Government but to perpetuate it, 
and asked for the assistance and sympathy of Maryland. This 
was in December, 1860. The Commissioner was answered by 
Governor Hicks, who was placed in a somewhat difficult posi- 
tion. The existing legislature of the State was presumed to be 
secessionist, but the legislature was not sitting, nor in the ordi- 
nary course of things would that legislature have been called 
on to sit again. The legislature of Maryland is elected every 
other year, and in the ordinary course sits only once in the two 
years. That session had been held, and the existing legislature 
was therefore exempt from further work — unless specially sum- 
moned for an extraordinary session. To do this is within the 
power of the Governor, but Governor Hicks, who seems to 
have been mainly anxious to keep things quiet, and whose in- 
dividual politics did not come out strongly, was not inclined to 
issue the summons. " Let us show moderation as well as firm- 
ness," he said ; and that was about all he did say to the Com- 
missioner from Mississippi. The Governor after that was di- 
rectly called on to convene the legislature ; but this he refused 
to do, alleging that it would not be safe to trust the discussion 
of such a subject as secession to — " excited politicians, many 
of whom having nothing to lose from the destruction of the 
Government, may hope to derive some gain from the ruin of 



FEOM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 203 

the State !" I quote tliese words, coming from the head of the 
executive of tlie State and spoken with reference to the legis- 
lature of the State, with the object of showing in what light 
the political leaders of a State may be held in that very State 
to which they belong ! If we are to judge of these legislators 
from the opinion expressed by Governor Hicks, they could 
hardly have been fit for their places. That plan of governing 
by the little men has certainly not answered. It need hardly 
be said that Governor Hicks having expressed such an opinion 
of his State's legislature, refused to call them to an extraordi- 
nary session. 

On the 18th of April, 1860, Governor Hicks issued a procla- 
mation to the people of Maryland, begging them to be quiet, 
the chief object of which, however, was that of promising that 
no troops should be sent out from their State, unless with the 
object of guarding the neighbouring city of Washington, — a 
promise which he had no means of fulfilling, seeing that the 
President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of 
the army of the nation ajid can summon the militia of the sev- 
eral States. This proclamation by the Governor to the State 
was immediately backed up by one from the Mayor of Balti- 
more to the city, in which he congratulates the citizens on the 
Governor's promise that none of their troops are to be sent to 
another State ; and then he tells them that they shall be pre- 
served from the horrors of civil war. 

Bu\. on the very next day the horrors of civil war began in 
Baltimore. By this time President Lincoln was collecting 
troops at Washington for the protection of the capital ; and 
that army of the Potomac, which has ever since occupied the 
Virginian side of the river, was in course of construction. To 
join this, certain troops from Massachusetts were sent down 
by the usual route, ?;/« New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; 
but on their reaching Baltimore by railway, the mob of that 
town refused to allow them to pass through, — and a fight be- 
gan. Nine citizens were killed and t-^¥^ soldiers, and as many 
more were wounded. This, I think, was the first blood spilt in 
the civil war ; and the attack was first made by the mob of the 
first slave city reached by the northern soldiers. This goes far 
to show, not that the border States desired secession, but that, 
Avhen compelled to choose between secession and union — ^vhen 
not allowed by circumstances to remain neutral — their sympa- 
thies Avere with their sister slave States rather than with the 
North. 

Then there was a great running about of official men between 



294 NORTH AMERICA. 

Baltimore and Washington, and the President was besieged 
with entreaties that no troops sliould be sent through Balti- 
more. Now this was hard enough upon President Lincoln, 
seeing that he was bound to defend his capital, that he could 
get no troops from the South, and that Baltimore is on the 
high road from "Washington, both to the West and to the 
North ; but, nevertheless, he gave way. Had he not done so, 
all Baltimore would have been in a blaze of rebellion, and the 
scene of the coming contest must have been removed from 
Virginia to Maryland, and Congress and the Government must 
have travelled from Washington north to Philadelphia. "They 
shall not come through Baltimore," said Mr. Lincoln. " But 
they shall come through the State of Maryland. They shall be 
passed over Chesapeake Bay by water to Annapolis, and shall 
come up by rail from thence." This arrangement was as dis- 
tasteful to the State of Maryland as the other ; but Annapolis 
is a small town without a mob, and the Marylanders had no 
means of preventing the passage of the troops. Attempts were 
made to refuse the use of the Annapolis branch railway, but 
General Butler had the arranging of that. General Butler was 
a lawyer from Boston, and by no means inclined to indulge the 
scruples of the Marylanders who had so roughly treated his 
fellow-citizens from Massachusetts. The troops did therefore 
pass through Annapolis, much to the disgust of the State. On 
the 27th of April Governor Hicks, having now had a sufficiency 
of individual responsibility, summoned the legislature of which 
he had expressed so bad an opinion ; but on this occasion he 
omitted to repeat that opinion, and submitted his views in very 
proper terms to the wisdom of the senators and representatives. 
He entertained, as he said, an honest conviction that the safety 
of Maryland lay in preserving a neutral position between the 
North and the South. Certainly, Governor Hicks, if it were 
only possible ! The legislature again went to work to prevent, 
if it might be prevented, the passage of troops through their 
State ; but luckily for them, they failed. The President was 
bound to defend Washington, and the Marylanders were denied 
their wish of having their own fields made the fighting ground 
of the civil war. 

That which appears to me to be the most remarkable feature 
in all this is the antagonism between United States law and 
individual State feeling. Through the whole proceeding the 
Governor and the State of Maryland seemed to have considered 
it legal and reasonable to oppose the constitutional power of 
the President and his Government. It is argued in all the 



FEOM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 295 

speeches and written documents that were produced in Mary- 
land at the time, that Maryland was true to the Union ; and 
yet she put herself in opposition to the constitutional military 
power of the President ! Certain commissioners went from 
the State legislature to Washington, in May, and from their re- 
port, it appears that the President had expressed himself of 
opinion that Maryland might do this or that, as long " as she 
had not taken and was not about to take a hostile attitude to 
the Federal Government !" From which we are to gather that 
a denial of that military power given to the President by the 
constitution was not considered as an attitude hostile to the 
Federal Government. At any rate, it was direct disobedience 
of federal law. I cannot but revert from this to the condition 
of the fugitive slave law. Federal law, and indeed the original 
constitution, plainly declare that fugitive slaves shall be given 
up by the free-soil States. Massachusetts proclaims herself to 
be specially a federal, law-loving State. But every man in 
Massachusetts knoAVs that no judge, no sheriff, no magistrate, 
no policeman in that State would at this time, or then, when 
that civil war was beginning, have lent a hand in any way to 
the rendition of a fugitive slave. The Federal law requires the 
State to give up the fugitive, but the State law does not require 
judge, sheriff, magistrate, or policeman to engage in such work, 
and no judge, sheriff, or magistrate will do so; consequently 
that Federal law is dead in Massachusetts, as it is also in every 
free-soil State, — dead, except inasmuch as there was life in it 
to create ill-blood as long as the North and South remained to- 
gether, and would be life in it for the same effect if they should 
again be brought under the same flag. 

On the 10th May the Maryland legislature, having received 
the report of their Commissioners above-mentioned, passed the 
following resolution : — 

" Whereas the war against the Confederate States is uncon- 
stitutional and repugnant to civilization, and will result in a 
bloody and shameful overthrow of our constitution, and whilst 
recognizing the obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sym- 
pathize with the South in the struggle for their rights ; for the 
sake of humanity, we are for peace and reconciliation, and sol- 
emnly protest against this war, and will take no part in it. 

" Resolved, — That Maryland implores the President, in the 
name of God, to cease this unholy war, at least until Congress 
assembles" — a period of above six months. " That Maryland 
desires and consents to the recognition of the indejDendence of 
the Confederate States. The military occupation of Maryland 



296 NORTH AMERICA. 

is unconstitutional and she protests against it, though the violent 
interference with the transit of the Federal troops is discoun- 
tenanced. That the vindication of her rights be left to time 
and reason, and that a convention under existing circumstances 
is inexpedient." 

From which it is plain that Maryland would have seceded 
as effectually as Georgia seceded, had she not been prevented 
by the interposition of Washington between her and the Con- 
federate States, — the happy intervention, seeing that she has 
thus been saved from becoming the battle-ground of the con- 
test. But the legislature had to pay for its rashness. On the 
13th of September thirteen of its members were arrested, as 
were also two editors of newspapers presumed to be secession- 
ists. A member of Congress was also arrested at the same 
time, and a candidate for Governor Hicks's place, who belonged 
to the secessionist party. Previously, in the last days of June 
and beginning of July, the chief of the police at Baltimore and 
the member of the Board of PoUce had been arrested by Gen- 
eral Banks, who then held Baltimore in his power. 

I should be sorry to be construed as saying that republican 
institutions, or what may more properly be called democratic 
institutions, have been broken down in the States of America. 
I am far from thinking that they have broken down. Taking 
them and their work as a whole, I think that they have shown, 
and still show, vitality of the best order. But the written con- 
stitution of the United States and of the several States^ as bear- 
ing upon each other, are not equal to the requirements made 
upon them. That, I think, is the conclusion to which a specta- 
tor should come. It is in that doctrine of finality that our 
friends have broken down, — a doctrine not expressed in their 
constitutions, and indeed expressly denied in the constitution 
of the United States, which provides the mode in which amend- 
ments shall be made — but appearing plainly enough in every 
word of self-gratulation which comes from them. Political 
finality has ever proved a delusion, — as has the idea of finality 
in all human institutions. I do not doubt but that the repub- 
lican form of government will remain and make progress in 
North America; but such prolonged existence and progress 
must be based on an acknowledgment of the necessity for 
change, and must in part depend on the facilities for change 
which shall be afforded. 

I have described the condition of Baltimore as it was early 
in May, 1861. I reached that city just seven months later, and 
its condition was considerably altered. There was no question 



FKOM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 297 

then whether troops should pass through Baltimore, or by an 
awkward round through AunapoHs, or not pass at all through 
Maryland. General Dix, who had succeeded General Banks, 
Avas holding the city in his grip, and martial law prevailed. In 
such times as those, it was bootless to inqun-e as to that prom- 
ise that no troops should pass southward through Baltimore. 
What have such assurances ever been worth in such days! 
Baltimore was now a military depot in the hands of the north- 
ern army, and General Dix Avas not a man to stand any trifling. 
He did me the honour to take me to the top of Federal Hill, a 
su]fw.u-b of the city, on which he had raised great earthworks 
and planted mighty cannons, and built tents and barracks for 
his soldiery, and to show me how instantaneously he could de- 
stroy the town from his exalted position. ''This hill was made 
for the very purpose," said General Dix; and no doubt he 
thought so. Generals when they have fine positions and big 
guns and prostrate people lying under their thumbs, are in- 
clined to think that God's providence has specially ordained 
them and their points of vantage. It is a good thing in the 
mind of a general so circumstanced that 200,000 men should be 
made subject to a dozen big guns. I confess that to me, hav- 
ing had no military education, the matter appeared in a difter- 
ent light, and I could not work up my enthusiasm to a pitch 
which would have been suitable to the General's courtesy- 
That hill, on which many of the poor of Baltimore had lived, 
was desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads. The neat 
earthworks were ugly, as looked upon by me ; and though I 
regarded General Dix as energetic, and no doubt skilful in the 
worl^; assigned to him, I could not sympathize with his exulta- 
tion. 

Previously to the days of secession Baltimore had been 
guarded by Fort Mac Henry, which lies on a spit of land run- 
ning out into the bay just below the town. Hither I went 
with General Dix, and he explained to me how the cannon had 
heretofore been pointed solely toward the sea ; that, however, 
now was all changed, and the mouths of his bombs and great 
artillery were turned all the other way. The commandant of 
the fort was with us, and other ofiicers, and they all spoke of 
this martial tenure as- a great blessing. Hearing them, one 
could hardly fail to suppose that they had lived their forty, 
fifty, or sixty years of life in full reliance on the powers of a 
military despotism. But not the less were they American re- 
publicans, who, twelve months since, would have dilated on the 
all-sufficiency of their republican institutions, and on the ab- 

]sr 2 



298 NOETH AMERICA. 

sence of any military restraint in their country, with that .pe- 
culiar pride which characterizes the citizens of the States. 
There are, however, some lessons which may be learned with 
singular rapidity ! 

Such was the state of Baltimore when I visited that city. I 
found, nevertheless, that cakes and ale still prevailed there. I 
am inclined to think that cakes and ale prevail most freely in 
times that are perilous, and when sources of sorrow abound. 
I have seen more reckless joviality in a town stricken by pesti- 
lence than I ever encountered elsewhere. There Avas General 
Dix seated on Federal Hill with his cannon ; and there, be- 
neath his artillery, were gentlemen hotly professing themselves 
to be secessionists, men whose sons and biothers Avere in the 
southern army, and women — alas ! whose brothers would be in 
one army, and their sons in another. Tliat was the part of it 
which was most heart-rending in this border land. In New 
England and New York men's minds at any rate were bent all 
in the same direction, — as doubtless they "were also in Georgia 
and Alabama. But here fathers were divided from sons, and 
mothers from daughters. Terrible tales were told of threats 
uttered by one member of a family against another. Old ties 
of friendship were broken up. Society had so divided itself, 
that one side could hold no terms of courtesy with the other. 
" When this is over," one gentleman said to me, " every man 
in Baltimore will have a quarrel to the death on his hands with 
some friend whom he used to love." The complaints made on 
both sides were eager and open-mouthed against the other. 

Late in the autumn an election for a new legislature of the 
State had taken place, and the members returned were all sup- 
posed to be unionist. That they were prepared to support the 
Government is certain. But no known or presumed secession- 
ist was allowed to vote without first taking the oath of alle- 
giance. The election, therefore, even if the numbers were true, 
cannot be looked upon as a free election. Voters were stop- 
ped at the poll and not allowed to vote unless they would take 
an oath which would, on their parts, undoubtedly have been 
false. It was also declared in Baltimore that men engaged to 
promote the northern party were permitted to vote five or six 
times over, and the enormous number of votes polled on the 
Government side gave some colouring to the statement. At 
any rate an election carried under General Dix'.s guns cannot 
be regarded as an open election. It was out of the question 
that any election taken under such circumstances should be 
worth anything as expressing the minds of the people. Red 



FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. 299 

and white had been declared to be the colours of the Confed- 
erates, and red and white had of course become the fovourite 
colours of the Baltimore ladies. Then it was given out that 
red and white would not be allowed in the streets. Ladies 
wearing red and white were requested to return home. Chil- 
dren decorated with red and white ribbons Avere stripped of 
their bits of finery, — much to their infantine disgust and dis- 
may. Ladies would put red and white ornaments in their win- 
ctows, and the police would insist on the withdrawal of the col- 
ours. Such was the condition of Baltimore during the past 
winter. Nevertheless cakes and ale abounded ; and though 
tlifere was deep grief in the city, and wailing in the recesses of 
many houses, and a feeling that the good times were gone, 
never to return within the clays of many of them, still there ex- 
isted an excitement and a consciousness of the importance of 
the crisis which Avas not altogether unsatisfactory. Men and 
women can endure to be ruined, to be torn from their friends, 
to be overwhelmed with avalanches of misfortune, better than 
they can endure to be dull. 

Baltimore is, or at any rate was, an aspiring city, proud of 
its commerce and proud of its society. It has regarded itself 
as the New York of the South, and to some extent has forced 
others so to regard it also. In many respects it is more like 
an English town than most of its transatlantic brethren, and 
the Avays of its inhabitants are English. In old days a pack of 
fox-hounds Avas kept here, — or indeed in days that are not yet 
very old, for I Avas told of their doings by a gentleman Avho 
had long been a member of the hunt. The country looks as a 
hunting, country should look, Avhereas no man that ever crossed 
a field after a pack of hounds Avould feel the slightest Avish to 
attempt that process in Ncav England or Ncav York. There 
is in Baltimore an old inn Avith an old sign, standing at the 
corner of EutaAV and Franklin Streets, just such as may still be 
seen in the towns of Somersetshire, and before it are to be seen 
old Avagons, covered, and soiled, and battered, about to return 
from the city to the country, just as the Avagons do in our own 
agricultural counties. I have found nothing so thoroughly En- 
glish in any other part of the Union. 

But canvas-back ducks and terrapins are the great glories 
of Baltimore. Of the nature of the former bird I believe all 
the world knoAvs something. It is a wild duck Avhich obtaitls 
the peculiarity of its flavour from the Avild celery on Avhich it 
feeds. This celery groAvs on the Chesapeake Bay, and I be- 
lieve on the Chesapeake Bay only. At any rate Baltimore is 



300 NORTH AMERICA. 

the head-quarters of the canvas-backs, and it is on the Chesa- 
peake Bay that they are shot. I was kindly invited to go down 
on a shooting-party; but when I learned that I should have to 
ensconce myself alone for hours in a wet wooden box on the 
water's edge, waiting there for the chance of a duck to come 
to nije, I declined. The fact of my never having as yet been 
successful in shooting a bird of any kind conduced somewhat 
perhaps to my decision. I must acknowledge that the canvas- 
back duck fully deserves all the reputation it has acquired. As 
to the terrapin, I have not so much to say. The terrapin is a 
small turtle, found on the shores of Maryland and Virginia, out 
of which a very rich soup is made. It is cooked with wines 
and spices, and is served in the shape of a hash, with heaps of 
little bones mixed through it. It is lield in great reputo, and 
the guest is expected as a matter of course to be helped twice. 
The man who did not eat twice of terrapin would be held in 
small repute, as the Londoner is held who at a city banquet 
does not partake of both thick and thin turtle. I must, how- 
ever, confess that the terrapin for me had no surpassing charms. 
Maryland was so called from Henrietta Maria, the wife of 
Charles I., by which king in 1632 the territory was conceded 
to the Roman Catholic Lord Baltimore. It was chiefly peo- 
pled by Roman Catholics, but I do not think that there is now 
any such speciality attaching to the State. There are in it two 
or three old Roman Catholic families, but the people have come 
down from the North, and have no peculiar religious tenden- 
cies. Some of Lord Baltimore's descendants remained in the 
State up to the time of the Revolution. From Baltimore I 
went on to Washington. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

WASHINGTON. 

The site of the present city of Washington was chosen with 
three special views ; firstly, that being on the Potomac it might 
have the full advantage of water-carriage and a sea-port ; sec- 
ondly, that it might be so far removed from the seaboard as 
to be safe from invasion ; and, thirdly, that it might be central 
alike to all the States. It was presumed wdien Washington 
was founded that these three advantages would be secured by 
the selected position. As regards the first, the Potomac affords 
to the city but few of the advantages of a sea-port. Ships can 
come up, but not ships of large burthen. The river seems to 



WASHINGTON. 301 

have dwindled since the site was chosen ; and at present it is, 
I think, evident that Washington can never be great in its 
shipping. Statio henefida carinis can never be its motto. As 
regards the second point, singularly enough Washington is 
the only city of the Union that has been in an enemy's pos- 
session since the United States became a nation. In the war 
of 1812 it fell into our hands, and we burnt it. As regards the 
third point, Washington, from the lie of the land, can hardly 
have been said to be centrical at any time. Owing to the ir- 
regularities of the coast, it is not easy of access by railway from 
different sides. Baltimore would have been far better. But 
as far as we can now see, and as well as we can now jndge, 
Washington will soon be on the borders of the nation to which 
it belongs, instead of at its centre. I fear, therefore, that we 
must acknowledge that the site chosen for liis country's capital 
by George Washington has not been fortunate. 

I have a strong idea, which I expressed before in speaking 
of the capital of the Canadas, that no man can ordain that on 
such a spot shall be built a great and thriving city. No man 
can so ordain even though he leave behind him, as was the 
case wdth Washington, a prestige sufficient to bind his suc- 
cessors to his wishes. The pohtical leaders of the country 
have done what they could for Washington. The pride of the 
nation has endeavoured to sustain the character of its chosen 
metropolis. There has been no rival, soliciting favour on the 
strength ot other charms. The country has all been agreed 
on the point since the father of the country first commenced 
the work. Florence and Rome in Italy have each their pre- 
tensions ; but in the States no other city has put itself forward 
for the honour of entertaining Congress. And yet Washing- j 
ton has been a failure. It is commerce that makes great cities, ' 
and commerce has refused to back the General's choice. New 
York and Philadelphia, without any political power, have be- 
come great among the cities of the earth. They are beaten by 
none except by London and Paris. But Washington is but a 
ragged, unfinished collection of unbuilt broad streets, as to the 
completion of which there can now, I imagine, be but little 
hope. 

Of all places that I know it is the most ungainly and most 
unsatisfactory ; — I fear I must also say the most presumptuous 
in its pretensions. There is a map of Washington accurately 
laid down ; and taking that map with him in his journeyings 
a man may lose himself in the streets, not as one loses oneself 
in London between Shoreditch and Russell Square, but as one 



302 NORTH AMERICA. 

does so in the deserts of tlie Holy Land, between Emmans and 
Ai'imathea, In the- lirst place no one knows Avhere the places 
are, or is sure of their existence, and then between their pre- 
sumed localities the country is wild, trackless, unbridged, un- 
inhabited, and desolate. Massachusetts Avenue runs the whole 
length of the city, and is inserted on the maps as a full-blown 
street, about four miles in length. Go there, and you will find 
yourself not only out of town, away among the fields, but you 
will find yourself beyond the fields, in an uncultivated, un- 
drained w^ilderness. Tucking your trousers up to your knees, \ / 
you will wade through the bogs, you will lose yourself among ' 
rude hillocks, you will be out of the reach of humanity. The 
unfinished dome of the Capitol will loom before you in the dis- 
tance, and you will think that you approach the ruins of some 
western Palmyra. If you are a sportsman, you will desire to 
shoot snipe within sight of the President's house. There is 
much unsettled land within the States of America, but I think 
none so desolate in its state of nature as three-fourths of the 
ground on which is supposed to stand the city of Washington. 

The city of Washington is something more than four miles 
long, and is something more than two miles broad. The land 
apportioned to it is nearly as compact as may be, and it ex- 
ceeds in area the size of a parallelogram four miles long by two 
broad. These dimensions are adequate for a noble city, for a 
city to contain a million of inhabitants. It is impossible to 
state with accuracy the actual population of Washington, for 
it fluctuates exceedingly. The place is very full during Con- 
gress, and very empty during the recess. By which I mean 
it to be understood that those streets, wdiich are blessed with 
houses, are full when Congress meets. I do not think that 
Congress makes much difference to Massachusetts Avenue. I 
believe that the city never contains as many as eighty thou- 
sand, and that its permanent residents are less than sixty 
thousand. 

But, it will be said, — was it not well to prepare for a grow- 
ing city ? Is it not true that London is choked by its own fat- 
ness, not having been endowed at its birth or during its growth, 
with proper means for accommodating its own increasing. pro- 
portions ? Was it not well to lay down fine avenues and broad 
streets, so that future citizens might find a city well prepared 
to their hand ? 

There is no doubt much in such an argument, but its cor- 
rectness must be tested by its success. When a man marries 
it is well that he should make provision for a coming family. 



WASHINGTON. ' 303 

])ui a Benedict, who early in his career shall have carried his 
friends with considerable self-applause through half-a-dozen 
nurseries, and at the end of twelve years shall still be the father 
of one ricketty baby, will incur a certain amount of ridicule. 
It is very well to be prepared for good fortune, but one should 
limit one's preparation within a reasonable scope. Two miles 
by one might perhaps have done for the skeleton sketch of a 
new city. Less than half that would contain much more than 
the present population of Washington ; and there are, I fear, 
few towns in the Union so little likely to enjoy any speedy 
increase. 

Three avenues sw^eep the wiiole length of Washington ; — 
A^irginia Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Massachusetts 
Avenue. But Pennsylvania Avenue is the only onfi known to 
ordinary men, and the half of that only is so known. This ave- 
nue is the backbone of the city, and those streets wdiich are 
really inhabited cluster round that half of it which runs west- 
ward from the Capitol. The eastern end, running from the 
front of the Capitol, is again a desert. The plan of the city is 
somewiiat complicated. It may truly be called *' a mighty 
maze, but not without a plan." The Capitol was intended to 
be the centre of the city. It faces eastward, away from the 
Potomac, — or rather from the main branch of the Potomac, 
and also unfortunately from the main body of the town. It 
turns its back upon the chief thoroughfare, upon the Treasury 
buildings, and upon the President's house ; and indeed upon 
the whole place. It "svas, I suppose, intended that the streets 
to the eastward should be noble and populous, but hitherto 
they have come to nothing. The building therefore is w^rong 
side foremost, and all mankind w^ho enter it, senators, repre- 
sentatives, and judges included, go in at the back-door. Of 
course it is generally known that in the Capitol is the Chamber 
of the Senate, that of the House of Representatives, and the 
Supreme Judicial Court of the Union. It may be said that 
there are tw^o centres in Washington, this being one, and the 
President's house the other. At these centres the main ave- 
nues are supposed to cross each other, which avenues are called 
by the names of the respective States. At the Capitol, Penn- 
sylvania Avenue, New Jersey Avenue, Delaware Avenue, and 
Maryland Avenue converge. They come from one extremity 
of the city to the square of the Capitol on one side, and run 
out from the other side of it to the other extremity of the city. 
Pejmsylvania Avenue, New York Avenue, Vermont Avenue, 
and Connecticut Avenue do the same at w^hat is generally 



304 I5"0ETH AMERICA. 

called President's Square. In theory, or on paper, this seems 
to be a clear and intelligible arrangement ; but it does not 
work well. These centre depots are large spaces, and conse- 
quently one portion of a street is removed a considerable dis- 
tance from the other. It is as though the same name should 
be given to two streets, one of which entered St. James's Park 
at Buckingham Gate, while the other started from the Park at 
Marlborough House. To inhabitants the matter probably is 
not of much moment, as it is well known that this portion of 
such an avenue and that portion of such another avenue are 
merely myths, — unknown lands away in the Avilds. But a 
stranger finds himself in the position of being sent across the 
country knee-deep into the mud, wading through snipe grounds, 
looking for'civilization Avhere none exists. 

All these avenues have a slanting direction. They are so 
arranged that none of them run north and south or east and 
west ; but the streets, so called, all run in accordance with the 
points of the compass. Those from east to west, are A Street, 
B Street, C Street, and so on, — counting them away from the 
Capitol on each side, so that there are two A Streets, and two 
B Streets. On the map these streets run up to V Street, both 
right and left, — V Street North and V Street South. Those 
really known to mankind are, E, F, G, H, I, and K Streets 
North. Then those streets which run from north to south are 
numbered First Street, Second Street, Third Street, and so on, 
on each front of the Capitol, running to Twenty-fourth or 
Twenty-fifth Street on each side. Not very many of these 
have any existence, or I might perhaps more properly say, any 
vitality in their existence. 

Such is the plan of the city, that being the arrangement and 
those the dimensions intended by the original architects and 
founders of Washington ; but the inhabitants have hitherto 
confined themselves to Pennsylvania Avenue West, and to the 
streets abutting from it or near to it. Whatever address a 
stranger may receive, however perplexing it may seem to him, 
he may be sure that the house indicated is near Pennsylvania 
Avenue. If it be not, I should recommend him to pay no at- 
tention to the summons. Even in those streets Avith which he 
will become best acquainted, the houses are not continuous. 
There will be a house, and then a blank ; then two houses, and 
then a double blank. After that a hut or two, and then prob- 
ably an excellent, roomy, handsome family mansion. Taken 
altogether, Washington as a city is most unsatisfactory, and 
falls more grievously short of the thing attempted than any 



WASHTXGTON. 305 

Other of the great undertakings of which I have seen anything 
in the States. San Jose, the capital of the repubhc of Costa 
Rica in Central America, has been prepared and arranged as a ' 
new city in the same way. But even San Jose comes nearer 
to what was intended than does Washington. 

For myself, I do not believe in cities made after this fashion. 
Commerce, I think, must select the site of all large congrega- 
tions of mankind. In some mysterious way she ascertains 
what she wants, and having acquired that, draws men in thou- 
sands round her properties. Liverpool, New York, Lyons, 
Glasgow, Marseilles, Hamburg, Calcutta, Chicago, and Leg- 
horn, have all become populous, and are or have been great, 
because trade found them to be convenient for its purposes, j 
Trade seems to have ignored Washington altogether. Such( 
being the case, the Legislature and the Executive of the coun- 
try together have been unable to make of Washington anything 
better than a straggling congregation of buildings in a wilder- 
ness. We are now trying the same experiment at Ottawa in 
Canada, having turned our back upon Montreal in dudgeon. 
The site of Ottawa is more interesting than that of Washing- 
ton, but I doubt whether the experiment will be more success- 
ful. A new town for art, fashion, and politics has been built 
at Munich, and there it seems to answer the expectation of the 
builders ; but at Munich there is an old city as well, and com- 
merce had already got some considerable hold on the S230t be- 
fore the new town was added to it. 

The streets of AYashington, such as exist, are all broad. 
Throughout the town there are open spaces, — spaces, I mean, 
intended to be open by the plan laid down for the city. At 
the present moment it is almost all open space. There is also 
a certain nobility about the proposed dimensions of the ave- 
nues and squares. Desirous of praising it in some degree, I can 
say that the design is grand. The thing done, however, falls 
so infinitely short of that design, that nothing but disappoint- 
ment is felt. And I fear that there is no look-out into the future 
which can justify a hope that the design will be fulfilled. It is 
therefore a melancholy place. The society into which one falls 
there consists mostly of persons who are not permanently resi- 
dent in the capital ; but of those who were permanent residents 
I found none who spoke of their city with affection. The men 
and women of Boston think tl\Si.t the sun shines nowhere else ; 
— and Boston Common is ver^ pleasant. The New Yorkers 
believe in Fifth Avenue with an unswerving faith ; and Fifth 
Avenue is calculated to inspire a faith. Philadelphia to a Phila- 



306 NORTH AMERICA. 

delphian is the centre of the universe, and the progress of Phil- 
adelphia, perhaps, justifies the partiality. The same thing may 
be said of Chicago, of Buffalo, and of Baltimore. But the 
same thing cannot be said in any degree of Washington. They 
who belong to it turn up their noses at it. They feel that they 
live surrounded by a failure. Its grand names are as yet flilse, 
and none of the efforts made have hitherto been successful. 
Even in winter, when Congress is sitting, Washington is mel- 
ancholy ; — but Washington in summer must surely be the sad-' 
dest spot on earth. 

There are six principal public buildings in Washington, as to 
which no expense seems to have been spared, and in the con- 
struction of which a certain amount of success has been ob- 
tained. In most of these this success has been more or less 
marred by an independent deviation from recognized rules of 
architectural taste. These are the Capitol, the Post-ofhce, the 
Patent-office, the Treasury, the President's house, and the 
Smithsonian Institute. The five first are Grecian, and the last 
in Washington is called — Romanesque. Had I been left to 
classify it by my own unaided lights, I should have called it 
bastard Gothic. 

The Capitol is by flir the most imposing ; and though there 
is much about it with which I cannot but find fault, it certainly 
is imposing. The present building was, I think, commenced 
in 1815, the former Capitol having been destroyed by the En- 
glish in the war of 1812-13. It was then finished according 
to the original plan, with a fine portico and well-proportioned 
pediment above it, — looking to the east. The outer flight of 
steps, leading up to this from the eastern approach, is good and 
in excellent taste. The expanse of the building to the right 
and left, as then arranged, was well proportioned, and, as far 
as we can now judge, the then existing dome was well propor- 
tioned also. As seen from the east the original building must 
have been in itself very fine. The stone is beautiful, being 
bright almost as marble, and I do not know that there was any 
great architectural defect to offend the eye. The figures in the 
pediment are mean. There is now in the Capitol a group ap- 
parently prepared for a pediment, w4iich is by no means mean. 
I was informed that they were intended for this position ; but 
they, on the other hand, are too good for such a place, and are 
also too numerous. This set oLstatues is by Crawford. Most 
of them are well known, and €ney are very fine. They now 
stand within the old chamber of the Representative House, 
and the pity is, that if elevated to such a position as that indi- 



WASHINGTON. 307 

cated, tliey can never be really seen. There are models of them 
at West Point, and some of them I have seen at other places 
m marble. The Historical Society at New York has one or 
two of them. In and about the front of the Cajjitol there are 
other efforts of sculpture, — imposing in their size, and assum- 
ing, if not affecting, much in the attitudes chosen. Statuary at 
Washington runs too much on two subjects, which are repeated 
perhaps almost ad nauseam ; one is that of a stiff, steady-look- 
ing, healthy, but ugly individual, with a square jaw and big 
jowl, which represents the great General ; he does not prepos- 
sess the beholder, because he appears to be thoroughly ill- 
natured. And the other represents a melancholy, weak figure 
without any hair, but often covered with feathers, and is in- 
tended to typify the red Indian. The red Indian is generally 
supposed to be receiving comfort ; but it is manifest that he 
never enjoys the comfort ministered to him. There is a gigan- 
tic statue of Washington, by Greenough, out in the grounds 
in front of the building. The figure is seated and holding up 
one of its arms towards the city. There is about it a kind of 
■weighty magnificence ; but it is stiff, ungainly, and altogether 
without life. 

But the front of the original building is certainly grand. 
The architect wdio designed it must have had skill, taste, and 
nobility of conception ; but even this was spoilt, or rather 
wasted, by the fact that the front is made to look upon noth- 
ing, and is turned from the city. It is as though t\\Q facade of 
the London Post-ofiice had been made to face the Goldsmiths' 
Hall. The Capitol stands upon the side of a hill, the front oc- 
cupying a much higher position than the back; consequently 
they who enter it from the back — and everybody does so enter 
it — are first called on to rise to the level of the lower floor by 
a stiff ascent of exterior steps, which are in no way grand or 
imposing, and then, having entered by a mean back-door, are 
instantly obliged to ascend again by another flight, — by stairs 
sufficiently appropriate to a back entrance, but altogether un- 
fitted for the chief approach to such a building. It may, of 
course, be said that persons who are particular in such matters, 
should go in at the front door and not at the back ; but one 
must take these things as one finds them. The entrance by 
w^hich the Capitol is approached is such as I have described. 
There are mean little brick chimneys at the left hand as one 
walks in, attached to modernlbakeries wiiich have been con- 
structed in the basement for the use of the soldiers ; and there 
is on the other hand the road by which waggons find their way 



308 NORTH AMEKICA. 

to the underground region with fuel, stationery, and other mat- 
ters desired by senators and representatives, — and at present 
by bakers also. 

In speaking of the front I have spoken of it as it was origin- 
ally designed and built. Since that period very heavy wings 
have been added to the pile ; wings so heavy that they are or 
seem to be much larger than the original structure itself. This, 
to my thinking, has destroyed the symmetry of the whole. The 
wings, which in themselves are by no means devoid of beauty, 
are joined to the centre by passages so narrow that from exte- 
rior points of view the light can be seen through them. This 
robs the mass of all oneness, of all entirety as a whole, and gives 
a scattered straggling appearance where there should be a look 
of massiveness and integrity. The dome also has been raised, 
a double drum having been given to it. This is unfinished and 
should not therefore yet be judged ; but I cannot think that 
the increased height will be an improvement. This again, to 
my eyes, appears to be straggling rather than massive. At a 
distance it commands attention, and to one journeying through 
the desert places of the city gives that idea of Palmyra which 
I have before mentioned. 

Nevertheless, and in spite of all that I have said, I have had 
pleasure in walking backwards and forwards, and through the 
grounds which lie before the eastern front of the Capitol. The 
space for the view is ample, and the thing to be seen has points 
which are very grand. If the Capitol were finished and all 
Washington were built around it, no man would say that the 
house in which Congress sat disgraced the city. 

Going west, but not due west, from the Capitol, Pennsylvania 
Avenue stretches in a right line to the Treasury Chambers. 
The distance is beyond a mile, and men say, scornfully, that the 
two buildings have been put so far apart in order to save the 
Secretaries who sit in the bureaux from a too rapid influx of 
members of Congress. This statement I by no means indorse ; 
it is undoubtedly the fact that both senators and representa- 
tives are very diligent in their calls upon gentlemen high in of- 
fice. I have been present on some such occasions, and it has 
always seemed to me that questions of patronage have been 
paramount. This reach of Pennsylvania Avenue is' the quarter 
for the best shops of Washington, — that is to say, the frequent- 
ed side of it is so, — that side^hich is on your right as you 
leave the Capitol. Of the otheftide the world knows nothing. 
And very bad shops they are. I doubt whether there be any 
town in the world at all equal in importance to Washington, 



WASHINGTON. 309 

which is in such respects so ill provided. The shops are bad 
and dear. In saying this I am guided by the opinions of all 
whom I heard speak on the subject. The same thing was told 
me of the hotels. Hearing that the city was very full at the 
time of my visit — full to overflowing — I had obtained private 
rooms through a friend before I Avent there. Plad I not done 
so, I might have lain in the streets, or have made one Avith 
three or four others in a small room at some third-rate inn. 
There had never been so great a throng in the town. I am 
bound to say that my friend did well for me. I found myself 
put up at the house of one Wormley, a coloured man, in I 
Street, to whose attention I can recommend any Englishman 
who may chance to want quarters in Washington. He has an 
hotel on one side of the street, and private lodging-houses on 
the other in which I found myself located. From what I heard 
of the hotels I conceived myself to be greatly in luck. Wil- 
lard's is the chief of these, and the evejlasting crowd and throng 
of men with which the halls and passages of the house Avere al- 
Avays full, certainly did not seem to promise either privacy or 
comfort. But then there are places in which privacy and com- 
fort are not expected, — are hardly even desired, — and Wash- 
ington is one of them. 

The Post-office and the Patent-office lie a little aAvay from 
JPennsylvania Avenue in F Street, and are opposite to each oth- 
er. The Post-office is certainly a very graceful building. It is 
square, and hardly can be said to have any settled front or any 
grand entrance. It is not approached by steps, but stands flush 
on the ground, alike on each of the four sides. It is ornament- 
ed Avith Corinthian pilasters, but is not over ornamented. It is 
certainly a structure creditable to any city. *rhe streets around 
it are all unfinished, and it is approached through seas of mud 
and sloughs of despond, Avhich have been contrived, as I imag- 
ine, to lessen, if possible, the croAvd of callers, and lighten in 
this way the overtasked officials within. That side by Avhicli 
the pubhc m general were supposed to approach Avas, during 
my sojourn, always guarded by vast mountains of flour-barrels. 
Looking up at the windoAvs of the building I perceived also 
that barrels were piled Avithin, and then I kncAv that the Post- 
office had become a provision depot for the army. The official 
arrangements here for the pubhc were so bad, as to be abso- 
lutely barbarous. I feel some remorse in saying this, for I Avas 
myself treated with the utmost courtesy by gentlemen holding 
high positions in the office, — to which I was specially attracted 
by my own connection with the Post-office in England. But I 



310 ^ NOBTH AMERICA. 

do not think that sucli courtesy should hinder me from tellinn^ 
what I saw that was bad, — seeing that it would not hinder me 
from telling what I saw that was good. / In Washington there 
is but one Post-office. There are no iron pillars or wayside let- 
ter-boxes, as are to be found in other towns of the Union ; — no 
subsidiary offices at which stamps can be bought and letters | 
posted. The distances of the city are very great, the means / 
of transit through the city very limited, the dirt of the city 
ways unrivalled in depth and tenacity ; and yet there is but 
one Post-office. Nor is there any established system of 
letter carriers. To those who desire it, letters are brought 
out and delivered by carriers who charge a separate por- 
terage for that service; but the rule is that letters shall be 
delivered from the window. For strangers this is of course a 
necessity of their position ; and I found that when once I had 
left instrui^ions that my letters should be delivered, those in- 
structions were carefully followed. Indeed nothing could ex- 
ceed the civility of the officials within ; — but so also nothing 
can exceed the barbarity of the arrangements without. The 
2)urchase of stamps I found to be utterly impracticable. They 
were sold at a window in a corner, at which newspapers were 
also delivered, to which there was no regular ingress, and from 
which there was no egress. It would generally be deeply sur- 
rounded by a crowd of muddy soldiers, who would wait there 
patiently till time should enable them to approach the window. 
The delivery of letters was almost more tedious, though in 
that there was a method. The aspirants stood in a long line, 
en cue^ as we are told by Carlyle that the bread-seekers used 
to approach the bakers' shops at Paris during the Revolution. 
This '' cue" would sometimes project out into the street. The 
work inside was done very slowly. The clerk had no facility, 
by use of a desk or otherwise, for running through the letters 
under the initials denominated, but turned letter by letter 
through his hand. To one questioner out of ten would a letter 
be given. It no doubt may be said in excuse for this that the 
presence of the army round Washington caused at that period 
special inconvenience ; and that plea should of course be taken, 
were it not that a very trifling alteration in the management 
within would have remedied all the inconvenience. As a build- 
ing the Washington Post-office is very good ; as the centre of 
a most complicated and difficult department, I believe it to be 
well managed : but as regards the special accommodation given 
by it to the city in which it stands, much cannot, I think, be 
said in its favour. 



WASHINGTON. SI I 

Opposite to that which is, I presume, the back of the Post- 
office, stands the Patent-office. This also is a grand building, 
with a line portico of Doric pillars at each of its three fronts. 
These are approached by Hights of steps, more gratifying to 
the eye than to the legs. The whole structure is massive and 
grand, and, if the streets round it were finished, would be 
imposing. The utilitarian spirit of the nation has, however, 
done much toward marring the appearance of the building, by 
piercing it Avith windows altogether unsuited to it, both in 
number and size. The walls, even under the jDorticoes, have 
been so pierced, in order that the whole space might be util- 
ized without loss of light ; and the effect is very mean. The 
Avindows are small and without ornament, — something like a 
London window of the time of George III. The effect produced 
by a dozen such at the back of a noble Doric porch, looking 
down among the pillars, may be imagined. 

In the interior of this building the Minister of the Interior 
holds his court, and of course also the Commissioners of Patents. 
Here is, in accordance with the name of the building, a museum 
of models of all patents taken out. I wandered through it, 
gazing with listless eye, now upon this, and now upon that ; 
but to me, in my ignorance, it was no better than a large toy- 
shop. When I saw an ancient dusty white hat, with some pe- 
culiar appendage to it which was unintelligible, it Avas no more 
to me than any other old Avhite hat. But had I been a man of 
science, Avhat a tale it might have told! Wandering about 
through the Patent-office I also found a hospital for soldiers. 
A British officer was with me who pronounced it to be, in its 
kind, very good. At any rate it was sweet, airy, and large. 
In these days the soldiers had got hold of everything. 

The Treasury Chambers is as yet an unfinished building. 
The front to the south has been completed ; but that to the 
north has not been built. Here at the north stands as yet the 
old Secretary of State's office. This is to come doAvn, and the 
Secretary of State is to be located in the new building, which 
will be added to the Treasury. This edifice Avill probably strike 
strangers more forcibly than any other in the town; both from 
its position and from its own character. It stands with its side 
to Pennsylvania Avenue, but the avenue here has turned roimd, 
and runs due north and south, having taken a twist, so as to 
make Avay for the Treasury and for the President's house, 
through both of which it must run had it been carried straight 
on throughout. These public offices stand Avith their side to 
the street, and the whole ienoth is ornamented Avith an exterior 



312 NORTH AMERICA. 

row of Ionic columns raised high above the footway. This is 
perhaps the prettiest thing in the city, and when the front to 
the north has been completed, the effect will be still better. 
The granite monoliths which have been used, and which are to 
be used, in this building are very massive. As one enters by 
the steps to the south there are two flat stones, one on each 
side of the ascent, the surface of each of which is about 20 feet 
by 18. The columns are, I think, all monoliths. Of those which 
are still to be erected, and which now lie about in the neigh- 
bouring streets, I measured one or two — one which was still in 
the rough I found to be 32 fget long by 5 feet broad, and 4-1- deep. 
These granite blocks have been brought to Washington from 
the State of Maine. The finished front of this building, looking 
down to the Potomac, is very good ; but to my eyes this also 
has been much injured by the rows of windows which look out 
from the building into the space of the portico. 

The President's house — or the White House as it is now 
called all the world over — is a handsome mansion fitted for the 
cliief ofticer of a great Republic, and nothing more. I think I 
may say that we have private houses in Loudon considerably 
larger. It is neat and pretty, and with all its immediate out- 
side belongings calls down no adverse criticism. It faces on 
to a small garden, whicli seems to be always accessible to the 
public, and opens out upon that everlasting Pennsylvania Ave- 
nue, which has now made another turn. Here in front of the 
White House is President's Square, as it is generally called. 
The technical name is, I believe. La Fayette Square. The houses 
round it are few in number, — not exceeding three or four on 
each side, but they are among the best in Washington, and the 
whole place is neat and Avell kept. President's Square is cer- 
tainly the most attractive part of the city. The garden of the 
square is always open, and does not seem to suffer from any 
public ill-usage ; by which circumstance I am again led to sug- 
gest that the gardens of our London squares might be thrown 
open in the same way. In the centre of this one at Washing- 
ton, immediately facing the President's house, is an equestrian 
statue of General Jackson. Itjs very bad ; but that it is not 
nearly as bad as it might be is proved by another equestrian 
statue, — of General Washington, — erected in the centre of a 
small garden-plat at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue, near the 
bridge leading to Georgetown. Of all the statues on horse- 
back which I ever saw, either in marble or bronze, this is by 
far the worst and most ridiculous. The horse is most absurd, 
but the man sitting on the horse is manifestly drunk. I should 



WASHINGTOX. 3 1 3 

think the time must come when this figm'e at any rate will be 
removed. 

I did not go inside the President's house, not having had 
while at Washington an opportunity of paying my personal re- 
spects to Mr. Lincoln. I had been told that this was to be done 
without trouble, but when I inquired on the subject I found that 
this was not exactly the case. I believe there are times when 
anybody may walk into the President's house without an intro- 
duction ; but that, I take it, is not considered to be the proper 
way of doing the work. I found that something like a favour 
would be incurred, or that some disagreeable trouble would be 
given, if I made a request to be presented, — and therefore I left 
Washington without seeing the great man. 

The President's house is nice to look at, but it is built on 
marshy ground, not much above the level of the Potomac, and 
is very unhealthy. I was told that all who live there becomG 
subject to fever and ague, and that few who now live there 
have escaped it altogether. This conies of choosing the site of 
a new city, and decreeing that it shall be built on this or on that 
spot. Large cities, especially in these latter days, do not collect 
themselves in unhealthy places. Men desert such localities, — 
or at least do not congregate at them when their character is 
once known. But the poor President cannot desert the White 
House. He must make the most of the residence which the 
nation has prepared for him. 

Of the other considerable public building of Washington, 
called the Smithsonian Institution, I have said that its style was 
bastard Gothic ; by this, I mean that its main attributes are 
Gothic, but that liberties have been taken with it, which, wheth- 
er they may injure its beauty or no, certainly are subversive of 
architectural purity. It is built of red stone, and is not ugly 
in itself There is a very nice Norman porch to it, and little 
bits of Lombard Gothic have been well copied from Cologne. 
But windows have been fitted in with stilted arches, of which 
the stilts seem to crack and bend, so narrow are they and4»o 
high. And then the towers with high pinnacled roofs are a 
mistake, — unless indeed they be needed to give to the whole 
structure that name of Romanesque which it has assumed. 
The building is used for museums and lectures, and was given 
to the city by one James Smithson, an Englishman. I cannot 
say that the city of Washington seems to be grateful, for all to 
whom I spoke on the subject hinted that the Institution was a 
failure. It is to be remarked that nobody in Washington is ; 
proud of Washington, or of anything in it. If the Smithsonian 

O 



314 NORTH AMERICA. 

Institution were at New York or at Boston, one would have a 
different story to tell. 

There has been an attempt made to raise at Washington a 
vast obelisk to the memory of Washington, — the first in war 
and first in peace, as the country is proud to call him. This 
obelisk is a fair type of the city. It is unfinished, — not a third 
of it having as yet been erected, — and in all human probability 
ever will remain so. If finished it would be the highest monu- 
ment of its kind standing on the face of the globe, — and yet, 
after all, what would it be even then as compared with one of 
the great pyramids ? Modern attempts cannot bear compari- 
son with those of the old world in simple vastness. But in 
lieu of simple vastness, the modern w^orld aims to achieve either 
beauty or utility. By the Washington monument, if completed, 
neither would be achieved. An obelisk with the proportions 
of a needle may be very graceful ; but an obelisk which re- 
quires an expanse of flat-roofed, sprawling buildings for its base, 
and of which the shaft shall be as big as a cathedral tower, can- 
not be graceful. At present some third portion of the shaft 
has been built, and there it stands. No one has a word to say 
for it. No one thinks that money will ever again be sub- 
scribed for its completion. I saw somewhere a box of plate- 
glass kept for contributions for this purpose, and looking in 
perceived that two half-dollar pieces had been given; — but 
both of them were bad. I was told also that the absolute 
foundation of the edifice is bad ; — that the ground, which is 
near the river and swampy, w^ould not bear the weight intend- 
ed to be imposed on it. 

A sad and saddening spot was that marsh, as I wandered 
down on it all alone one Sunday afternoon. The ground was 
frozen, and I could walk dry-shod, but there was not a blade 
of grass. Around me on all sides were cattle in great num- 
bers — steers and big oxen — lowing in their hunger for a meal. 
They were beef for the army, and never again I suppose would 
^ be allowed to them to fill their big maws and chew the pa- 
tient cud. There, on the brown, ugly, undrained field, within 
easy sight of the President's house, stood the useless, shapeless, 
graceless pile of stones. It was as though I were looking on 
the genius of the city. It was vast, pretentious, bold, boastful 
with a loud voice, already taller by many heads than other ob- 
elisks, but nevertheless still in its infancy, — ugly, unpromising, 
and false. The founder of the monument had said. Here shall 
be the obelisk of the w^orld ! and the founder of the city had 
thougrht of his child somewhat in the same strain. It is still 



WASHINGTON. 315 

possible that both city and monument shall be completed ; but 
at the present moment nobody seems to believe in the one or 
in the other. For myself I have much faith in the American 
character, but I cannot beheve either in Washington city or in 
the Washington monument. The boast made has been too 
loud, and the fulfilment yet accomplished has been too small ! 

Have I as yet said that Washington was dirty in that win- 
ter of 1861-1862? Or, I should rather ask, have I made it 
understood that in walking about Washington one waded as 
deep in mud as one does in floundering through an ordinary 
ploughed field in November ? There were parts of Pennsylva- 
nia Avenue which would have been considered heavy ground 
by most hunting-men, and through some of the remoter streets 
none but light weights could have lived long. This was the 
state of the town when I left it in the middle of January. On 
my arrival in the middle of December, everything was in a 
cloud of dust. One walked through an atmosphere of floating 
mud ; for the dirt was ponderous and thick, and very palpable 
in its atoms. Then came a severe frost and a little snow ; and 
if one did not fall while walking, it was very well. After that 
we had the thaw; and Washington assumed its normal Avin- 
ter condition. I must say that, during the whole of this time, 
the atmosphere was to me exhilarating ; but I was hardly out 
of the doctor's hands while I was there, and he did not support 
my theory as to the goodness of the air. " It is poisoned by 
the soldiers," he said, "and everybody is ill." But then my 
doctor was perhaps a little tinged with southern proclivities. 

On the Virginian side of the Potomac stands a country- 
house called Arlington Heights, from which there is a fine view 
down upon the city. Arlington Heights is a beautiful spot, — 
having all the attractions of a fine park in our country. It is 
covered with grand timber. The ground is varied and broken, 
and the private roads about sweep here into a dell and then up 
a brae-side, as roads should do in such a domain. Below it 
was the Potomac, and immediately on the other side stands 
the city of Washington. Any city seen thus is graceful ; and 
the white stones of the big buildings when the sun gleams on 
them, showing the distant rows of columns, seem to tell some- 
thing of great endeavour and of achieved success. It is the 
place from whence Washington should be seen by those who 
wish to think well of the present city and of its future prosper- 
ity. But is it not the case that every city is beautiful from a 
distance ? 

The house at Arlington Heights is picturesque, but neither 



316 NOKTH AMERICA. 

large nor good. It has before it a high Greek colonnade, 
which seems to be almost bigger than the house itself. Had 
such been built in a city, — and many such a portico does stand 
in cities through the States, — it would be neither picturesque 
nor graceful ; but here it is surrounded by timber, and as the 
columns are seen through the trees, they gratify the eye rather 
than offend it. The place did belong, and as I think does still 
belong, to the family of the Lees, — if not already confiscated. 
General Lee, who is or would be the present owner, bears high 
command in the army of the Confederalists, and knows well by 
what tenure he holds, or is likely to hold, his family property. 
The family were friends of General AVashington, whose seat, 
Mount Vernon, stands about twelve miles lower down the 
river ; and here, no doubt, Washington often stood, looking on 
the site he had chosen. If his spirit could stand there now 
and look around upon the masses of soldiers by which his cap- 
ital is surrounded, how Avould it address the city of his hopes ? 
When he saw that every foot of the neighbouring soil was des- 
ecrated by a camp, or torn into loathsome furrows of mud by 
cannon and army waggons, — that agriculture was gone, and 
that every effort both of North and South was concentrated on 
the art of killing ; when he saw that this was done on the very 
spot chosen by himself for the centre temple of an everlasting 
nnion, what would he then say as to that boast made on his 
behalf by his countrymen that he Avas first in war and first in 
peace ? Washington Avas a great man, and I believe a good 
man. I, at any rate, Avill not belittle him. I think that he had 
the firmness and audacity necessary for a revolutionary leader, 
that he had honesty to preserve him from the temptations of 
ambition and ostentation, and that he had the good sense to be 
guided in civil matters by men Avho had studied the laAvs of 
social life and the theories of free government. He ^Yas Justus 
et te?iax 2)ropositi; and in periods that might Avell have dis- 
mayed a smaller man, lie feared neither the throne to Avhich he 
opposed himself, nor the changing A^oices of the fellow-citizens 
for Avhose welfare he had fought. But sixty or seventy years 
will not sufiice to give to a man the fame of having been first 
among all men. Washington did much, and I for one do not 
believe that his work Avill perish. But I have ahvays found it 
difiicult, — I may say impossible, — to sound his praises in his 
own land. Let us suppose that a courteous Frenchman ven- 
tures an opinion among Englishfnen that Wellington Avas a 
great general, Avould he feel disposed to go on Avith his eulo- 
gium when encountered on tAvo or three sides at once Avith 



WASHINGTON. 3 1 7 

such observations as the following: — "I should rather calcu- 
late he was ; about the first that ever did live or ever will live. 
Why, he whipped your Napoleon everlasting whenever he met 
him. He whipped everybody out of the field. There waru't 
anybody ever lived Avas able to stand nigh him, and there 
won't c'ome any like him again. Sir, I guess our Wellington 
never had his likes on your side of the water. Such men can't 
grow in a down-trodden country of slaves and paupers." Un- 
der such circumstances the Frenchman would probably be shut 
up. And when I strove to speak of Washington I generally 
found myself shut up also. 

Arlington Heights, when I was at Washington, was the head- 
quarters of General M'Dowell, the General to^whom is attrib- 
uted — I believe most wrongfully — the loss of the battle of 
Bull's Run. The whole place was then one camp. The fences 
had disappeared. The gardens were trodden into mud. The 
roads had been cut to pieces, and new tracks made everywhere 
through the grounds. But the timber still remained. Some 
no doubt had fallen, but enough stood for the ample ornament- 
ation of the place. I saw placards up, prohibiting the destruc- 
tion of the trees, and it is to be hoped that they have been 
spared. Very little in this way has been spared in the country 
all around. 

Mount Vernon, Washington's own residence, stands close 
over the Potomac, above six miles below Alexandria. It will 
be understood that the capital is on the eastern, or Maryland 
side of the river, and that Arlington Heights, Alexandria, and 
Mount Vernon are in Virginia. The river Potomac divided the 
two old colonies, or States as they afterward became ; but when 
Washington was to be built, a territory, said to be ten miles 
square, was cut out of the two States and was called the dis- 
trict of Columbia. The greater portion of this district was 
taken from Maryland, and on that the city was built. It com- 
prised the pleasant town of Georgetown, which is now a suburb 
— and the only suburb — of Washington. The portion of the 
district on the Virginian side included Arlington Heights, and 
went so far down the river as to take in the Virginian city of 
Alexandria. This was the extreme western j^oint of th^ dis- 
trict ; but since that arrangement was made, the State of Vir- 
ginia petitioned to have their portion of Columbia back again, 
and this petition was granted. Now it is felt that the land on 
both sides of the river should belong to the city, and the Gov- 
ernment is anxious to get back the Virginian section. The city 
and the immediate vicinity are freed from all State allegiance, 



318 NORTH AMERICA. 

and are nnder the immediate rule of the United States Govern- 
ment, — having of course its own municipality ; but the inhabit- 
ants have no pohtical power, as power is counted in the States. 
They vote for no pohtical officer, not even for the President, 
and return no member to Congress, either as a senator or as 
a representative. Mount Vernon was never within the district 
of Columbia. 

When I first made inquiry on the subject I was told that 
Mount Vernon at that time was not to be reached ; — that 
though it was not in the hands of the rebels, neither was it in 
the hands of Northerners, and that therefore strangers could 
not go there ; but this, though it was told to me and others 
by those who should have known the facts, was not the 
case. I had gone down the river with a party of ladies, and 
we were opposite to Mount Vernon ; but on that occasion 
we were assured we could not land. The rebels, we were told, 
would certainly seize the ladies, and carry them off into Seces- 
sia. On hearing which the ladies w^ere of course doubly anx- 
ious to be landed. But our stern commander, for we Avere on 
a Government boat, would not listen to their prayers, but car- 
ried us instead on board the *Pensacola,' a sloop-of-war which 
was now lying in the river, ready to go to sea, and ready also 
to run the gauntlet of the rebel batteries Avhich lined the Vir- 
ginian shore of the river for many miles down below Alexan- 
dria and Mount Vernon. A sloop-of-war in these days means 
a large man-of-war, the guns of which are so big that they only 
stand on one deck, whereas a frigate would have them on two 
decks, and a line-of-battle ship on three. Of line-of-battle ships 
there will, I suppose, soon be none, as the ' Warrior' is only a 
frigate. We went over the ' Pensacola,' and I must say she 
was very nice, pretty, and clean. I have always found Amer- 
ican sailors on their men-of-war to be clean and nice-looking, 
— as much so I should say as our own ; but nothing can be 
dirtier, more untidy, or apparently more ill-preserved than all 
the appurtenances of their soldiers. 

We landed also on this occasion at Alexandria, and saw as 
melancholy and miserable a town as the mind of man can con-) 
ceive. Its ordinary male population, counting by the voters, 
is 1500, and of these VOO were in the southern army. The' 
place had been made a hospital for northern soldiers, and no 
doubt the site for that purpose had been well chosen. But let 
any woman imagine what would be the feelings of her life 
while living in a town used as a hospital for the enemies against 
whom her absent husband was then fighting ! Her own man 



WASHINGTON. 319 

would be away ill, — wounded, dying, for what she knew, with- 
out the comfort of any hospital attendance, without physic, 
Avith no one to comfort him ; but those she hated, with a hatred 
much keener than his, were close to her hand, using some 
friend's house that had been forcibly taken, crawling out into 
the sun under her eyes, taking the bread from her mouth I 
Life in Alexandria at this time must have been sad enough.{ 
The people were all secessionists, but the town was held by'- 
the northern party. Through the lines, into Virginia, they 
could not go at all. Up to Washington they could not go with- 
out a military pass, not to be obtained without some cause 
given. All trade was at an end. In no town at that time was 
trade very flourishing ; but here it was killed altogether, — ex- 
cept that absolutely necessary trade of bread. Who would buy 
boots or coats, or Avant new saddles, or waste money on books, 
in such days as these, in such a town as Alexandria ? And then 
out of 1500 men, one-half had gone to flght the southern bat- 
tles ! Among the women of Alexandria secession would have 
found but few opponents. 

It was here that a hot-brained young man, named Ellsworth, 
was killed in the early days of the rebellion. He was a colonel in 
the northern volunteer army, and on entering Alexandria found 
a secession flag flying at the chief hotel. Instead of sending 
up a corporal's guard to remove it, he rushed up and pulled it 
down with his own hand. As he descended, the landlord shot 
him dead, and one of his soldiers shot the landlord dead. It 
was a pity that so brave a lad, A\4io had risen so high, should 
fall so vainly; but they have made a hero of him in America; 
— have inscribed his name on marble monuments, and counted 
him up among their great men. In all this their mistake is 
very great. It is bad for a country to have no names worthy 
of monumental brass ; but it is worse for a country to have 
monumental brasses covered with names which have never been 
made worthy of such honour. Ellsworth had shown himself 
to be brave and foolish. Let his folly be pardoned on the score 
of his courage, and there, I think, should have been an end of it. 

I found afterwards that Mount Vernon was accessible, and I 
rode thither with some officers from the staff" of General Heint- 
zelman, whose outside pickets were stationed beyond the old 
place. I certainly should not have been well pleased had I 
been forced to leave the country without seeing the house in 
which Washington had lived and died. Till lately this place 
was owned and inhabited by one of the family, a Washington, 
descended from a brother of the General's ; but it has now be- 



320 NORTH AMERICA. 

come the property of the country, under the auspices of M4. 
Everett, by whose exertions was raised the money with which 
it was purchased. It is a long house, of two stories, built, I 
think, cliiefly of wood, with a verandah, or rather long portico, 
attached to the front, which looks upon the river. There are 
two wings, or sets of outhouses, containing the kitchen and 
servants' rooms, w^hich were joined by open wooden verandahs 
to the main building; but one of these verandahs has gone, un- 
der the influence of years. By these a semicircular sweep is 
formed before the front door, which opens away from the riv- 
er, and towards the old prim gardens, in which, we were told, 
General Washington used to take much delight. There is noth- 
ing very special about the house. Indeed, as a house, it would 
now be found comfortless and inconvenient. But the ground 
falls well down to the river, and the timber, if not fine, is plen- 
tiful and picturesque. The chief interest of the place, however, 
is in the tomb of Washington and his wife. It must be under- 
stood that it was a common practice throughout the States to 
make a family burying-ground in any secluded spot on the fam- 
ily property. I have not unfrequently come across these in my 
rambles, and in Virginia I have encountered small, unpretend- 
ing gravestones under a shady elm, dated as lately as eight or 
ten years back. At Mount Vernon there is now a cemetery of 
the Washington family ; and there, in an open vault — a vault 
open, but guarded by iron grating — is the great man's tomb, 
and by his side the tomb of Martha his wife. As I stood there 
alone, with no one by to irritate me by assertions of the man's 
absolute supremacy, I acknowledged that I had come to the 
final resting-place of a great and good man, — of a man Avhose 
patriotism was, I believe, an honest feeling, untinged by any 
personal ambition of a selfish nature. That he Avas pre-emi- 
nently a successful man may have been due chiefly to the ex- 
cellence of his cause, and the blood and character of the people 
who put him forward as their right arm in their contest ; but 
that he did not mar that success by arrogance, or destroy the 
brightness of his own name by personal aggrandisement, is due to 
a, noble nature and to the calm individual excellence of the man. 
Considering the circumstances and history of the place, the 
position of Mount Vernon, as I saw it, was very remarkable. 
It lay exactly between the lines of the two armies. The pick- 
ets of the Northern army had been extended beyond it, not im- 
probably with the express intention of keeping a spot so hal- 
lowed within the power of the northern Government. But 
since the war began it had been in the hands of the seceders. 



WASHINGTOX. 321 

In fact, it stood there in the middle of the battle-field, on the 
very line of division between loyalisni and secession. And this 
was the spot which Washington had selected as the heart and 
centre, and safest rallying homestead of the united nation w^hich 
he left behind him. But Washington, wdien he resolved to 
found his capital on the banks of the Potomac, knew nothing 
of the glories of the Mississippi. He did not dream of the 
speedy addition to his already gathered constellations of those 
Western stars, of Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa ; nor 
did he dream of Texas conquered, Louisiana purchased, and 
Missouri and Kansas rescued from the wilderness. 

I have said that Washington was at that time, — the Christ- 
mas of 1861-1862, — a melancholy place. This was partly ow- 
ing to the despondent tone in which so many Americans then 
spoke of their own aifairs. It was not that the northern men 
thought that they were to be beaten, or that the southern men 
feared that things were going bad with their party across the 
river ; but that nobody seemed to have any faith in anybody. 
Maclellan had been put up as the true man — exalted perhaps 
too quickly, considering the limited opportunities for distin- 
guishing himself which fortune had thrown in his Avay ; but 
now belief in Maclellan seemed to be slipping away. One felt 
that it was so from day to day, though it was impossible to de- 
fine how or whence the feeling came. And then the character 
of the ministry fared still worse in public estimation. That 
Lincoln, the President, was honest, and that Chase, the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, was able, w\as the only good that one 
heard spoken. At this time two Jonahs were specially pointed 
out as necessary sacrifices, by whose immersion into the com- 
fortless ocean of private life the ship might perhaps be saved. 
These were Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, and Mr. Welles, 
the Secretary of the !Ravy. It was said that Lincoln, when 
pressed to rid his Cabinet of Cameron, had replied, that when 
a man was crossing a stream the moment was hardly conven- 
ient for changing his horse ; but it came to that at last, that he 
found he must change his horse, even in the very sharpest run 
of the river. Better that than sit an animal on whose exer- 
tions he knew that he could not trust. So Mr. Cameron went, 
and Mr. Stanton became Secretary at War in his place. But 
Mr. Cameron, though put out of the Cabinet, was to be saved 
from absolute disgrace by being sent as Minister to Russia. I 
do not know that it would become me here to repeat the accu- 
sations made against Mr. Cameron, but it had long seemed to 
me that the maintenance in such a position, at such a time, of 

02 



322 NORTH AMERICA. 

a gentleman who had to sustain such a universal absence of 
public confidence, must have been most detrimental to the army 
and to the Government. 

Men whom one met in Washington were not unhappy about 
the state of things, as I had seen men unhappy in the North 
and in the West. They were mainly indifferent, but with that 
sort of indifference w^hich arises from a break down of faith in 
anything. " There was the army ! Yes, the army ! But what 
an army ! ISTobody obeyed anybody. Nobody did anything ! 
Nobody thought of advancing ! There were, perhaps, two hun- 
dred thousand men assembled round Washington ; and now 
tlie effort of supplying them, with food and clothing was as 
much as could be accomplished ! But the contractors, in the 
meantime, were becoming rich. And then as to the Govern- 
ment ! Who trusted it ? Who would put their fjiith in Sew- 
ard and Cameron ? Cameron Avas now gone, it was true ; and 
in that way the whole of the Cabinet would soon be broken up. 
As to Congress, what could Congress do ? Ask questions which 
no one would care to answer, and finally get itself packed up 
and sent home." The President and the constitution fared no 
better in men's mouths. The former did nothing, — neither 
harm nor good ; and as for the latter, it had broken down and 
shown itself to be inefficient. So men ate, and drank, and 
laughed, waiting till chaos should come, secure in the belief 
that the atoms into which their world would resolve itself, 
would connect themselves again in some other form without 
trouble on their part. 

And at Washington I found no strong feeling against En- 
gland and English conduct towards America. " We men of 
the world," a Washington man might have said, ''know very 
well that everybody must take care of himself first. We are 
very good friends with you, — of course, and are very glad to see 
you at our table whenever you come across the water ; but as 
for rejoicing at your joys, or expecting you to sympathize with 
our sorrow^s, we know the world too w^ell for that. We are 
si^litting into pieces, and of course that is gain to you. Take 
another cigar." This polite, fashionable, and certainly comfort- 
able way of looking at the matter had never been attained at 
New York or Philadelphia, at Boston or Chicago. The north- 
ern provincial world of the States had declared to itself that 
those who were not with it were against it ; that its neighbours 
should be either friends or foes ; that it would understand noth- 
ing of neutrality. This was often mortifying to me, but I think 



WASHmGTOiN. 323 

I liked it better on the whole than the laisser-aller indifference 
of Washington. 

Everybody acknowledged that society in Washington had 
been almost destroyed by the loss of the southern half of the 
usual sojourners in the city. The senators and members of 
Government, who heretofore had come from the southern 
States, had no doubt spent more money in the capital than their 
northern brethren. They and their families had been more ad- 
dicted to social pleasures. They are the descendants of the old 
English Cavaliers, whereas the northern men have come from 
the old English Roundheads. Or if, as may be the case, the 
blood of the races has now been too well mixed \p allow of this 
being said with absolute truth, yet something of the manners 
of the old forefathers has been left. The southern gentleman 
is more genial, less dry, — I will not say more hospitable, but 
more given to enjoy hospitality than his northern brother; and 
this difference is quite as strong with the women as with the 
men. It may therefore be understood that secession would be 
very fatal to the society of Washington. It was not only that 
the members of Congress were not there. As to very many 
of the representatives, it may be said that they do not belong 
sufficiently to Washington to make a part of its society. It is 
not every representative that is, perhaps, qualified to do so. 
But secession had taken away from Washington those who 
held property in the South — who were bound to the South by 
any ties, whether political or other ; who belonged to the South 
by blood, education, and old habits. In very many cases — nay, 
In most such cases — it had been necessary that a man should 
select whether he would be a friend to the South, and there- 
fore a rebel; or else an enemy to the South, and therefore un- 
true to all the predilections and sympathies of his life. Here 
has been the hardship. For such people there has been no 
neutrality possible. Ladies even have not been able to profess 
themselvess simply anxious for peace and goodwill, and so to 
remain tranquil. They who are not for me are against me, has 
been spoken by one side and by the other. And I suppose that 
in all civil war it is necessary that it should be so. I heard of 
various cases in wdiich father and son had espoused different 
sides in order that property might be retained both in the 
North and in the South. Under such circumstances it may be 
supposed that society in Washington w^ould be considerably 
cut up. All this made the place somewhat melancholy. 



324 NORTH AMERICA. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

CONGRESS. 

In the interior of the Capitol much space is at present wasted, 
but this arises from the fact of great additions to the original plan 
having been made. The two chambers, — tliat of the Senate and 
of the Representatives, are in the tY>^o new wings, on the middle, 
or what we call the first-floor. The entrance is made under a 
dome, to a large circular hall, which is hung around with surely 
the worst pictures by which a nation ever sought to glorify its 
own deeds. There are yards of paintings at Versailles which are 
bad enough ; but there is nothing at Versailles comparable in vil- 
lany to the huge daubs which are preserved in this hall at the Cap- 
itol. It is strange that even self-laudatory patriotism should de- 
sire the perpetuation of such rubbish. When I was there the new 
dome was still in progress, and an ugly column of woodwork, re- 
quired for internal support and affording a staircase to the top, 
stood in this hall. This of course was a temporary and necessary 
evil ; but even this was hung around with the vilest of portraits. 

From the hall, turning to the left, if the entrance be made at 
the front door, one goes to the new Chamber of Representatives, 
passing through that which was the old chamber. This is now 
dedicated to the exposition of various new figures by Crawford, 
and to the sale of tarts and gingerbread, — of very bad tarts and 
gingerbread. Let that old woman look to it, or let the House dis- 
miss her. In fact, this chamber is now but a vestibule to a pas- 
sage, a second hall as it were, and thus thrown away. Changes 
probably will be made which will bring it into some use, or some 
scheme of ornamentation. From this a passage runs to the Rep- 
resentative Chamber, passing between those tell-tale windows, 
which, looking to the right and left, proclaim the tenuity of the 
building. The windows on one side, that looking to the east or 
front, should, I think, be closed. The appearance, both from the 
inside and from the outside, would be thus improved. 

The Representative Chamber itself — which of course answers to 
our House of Commons — is a handsome, commodious room, ad- 
mirably fitted for the purposes required. It strikes one as rather 
low, but I doubt if it were higher whether it would be better 
adapted for hearing. Even at present it is not perfect in this re- 
spect as regards the listeners in the gallery. It is a handsome, 
long chamber, lighted by skylights from the roof, and is amply 



CONGRESS. 325 

large enough for the number to be accommodated. The Speaker 
sits opposite to the chief entrance, his desk being fixed against the 
opposite wall. He is thus brought nearer to the body of the men 
before him than is the case with our Speaker. He sits at a mar- 
ble table, and the clerks below him are also accommodated with 
marble. Every representative has his own arm-chair, and his 
own desk before it. This may be done for a house consisting of 
about 240 members, but could hardly be contrived with us. These 
desks are arranged in a semicircular form, or in a broad horseshoe, 
and every member as he sits faces the Speaker. A score or so of 
little boys are always running about the floor, ministering to the 
members' wishes, carrying up petitions to the chair, bringing wa- 
ter to long-winded legislators, delivering and carrying out letters, 
and running with general messages. They do not seem to inter- 
rupt the course of business, and yet they are the liveliest little boys 
I ever saw. When a member claps his hands, indicating a desire 
for attendance, three or four will jockey for the honour. On the 
whole, I thought the little boys had a good time of it. 

But not so the Speaker. It seemed to me that the amount of 
work falling upon the Speaker's shoulders was cruelly heavy. His 
voice was always ringing in my ears, exactly as does the voice of 
the croupier at a gambling-table M'ho goes on declaring and ex- 
plaining the results of the game, and who generally does so in 
sharp, loud, ringing tones, from which all interest in the proceed- 
ing itself seems to be excluded. It was just so with the Speaker 
in the House of Representatives. The debate was always full of 
interruptions; but on every interruption the Speaker asked the 
gentleman interrupted whether he would consent to be so treated. 
" The gentlemanjrom Indiana }ias the floor." " The gentleman 
from Ohio wishes to ask the gentleman from Indiana a question." 
"The gentleman from Indiana gives permission." "The gentle- 
man from Ohio !" — these last words being a summons to him of 
Ohio to get up and ask his question. " The gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania rises to order." " The gentleman from Pennsylvania is 
in order." And then the House seems always to be voting, and 
the Speaker is always putting the question. "The gentlemen 
who agree to the amendment will say. Ay." Not a sound is heard. 
" The gentlemen who oppose the amendment will say. No.'' Again 
not a sound. " The Ayes have it," says the Speaker, and then 
he goes on again. All this he does with amazing rapidity, and is 
always at it with the same hard, quick, ringing, uninterested voice. 
The gentleman whom I saw in the chair was very clever, and 
quite up to the task. But as for dignity — ! Perhaps it might 



326 NORTH AMERICA. 

be found that any great accession of dignity would impede the ce- 
lerity of the work to be done, and that a closer copy of the Brit- 
ish model might not on the whole increase the efficiency of the 
American machine. 

When any matter of real interest occasioned a vote, the ayes 
and noes would be given aloud ; and then, if there were a doubt 
arising from the volume of sound, the Speaker would declare that 
the " ayes" or the " noes" would seem to have it ! And upon this 
a poll would be demanded. In such cases the Speaker calls on 
two members, who come forth and stand fronting each other before 
the chair, making a gangway. Through this the ayes walk like 
sheep, the tellers giving them an accelerating poke when they fail 
to go on with rapidity. Thus they are counted, and the noes are 
counted in the same way. It seemed to me that it would be very 
possible in a dishonest legislator to vote twice on any subject of 
great interest ; but it may perhaps be the case that there are no 
dishonest legislators in the House of Representatives. 

According to a iLst which I obtained, the present number of 
members is 173, and there are 63 vacancies occasioned by seces- 
sion. New York returns 33 members, Pennsylvania 25, Ohio 21, 
Virginia 13, Massachusetts and Indiana 11, Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky 10, South Carolina 6, and so on, till Delaware, Kansas, and 
Florida return only 1 each. When the constitution was framed, 
Pennsylvania returned 8, and New York only 6 ; whereas Vir- 
ginia returned 10, and South Carolina 5. From which may be 
gathered the relative rate of increase in population of the Free- 
soil States and the Slave States. All these States return two sen- 
ators each to the other House, Kansas sending as many as New 
York. The work in the House begins at 12 noon, and is not 
often carried on late into the evening. Indeed this, I think, is 
never done till towards the end of the session. 

The Senate House is in the opposite wing of the building, the 
position of the one house answering exactly to that of the other. 
It is somewhat smaller, but is, as a matter of course, much less 
crowded. There are 34 States, and therefore 68 seats and 68 
desks only are required. These also are arranged in a horseshoe 
form, and face the President ; but there was a sad array of empty 
chairs when I was in Washington, nineteen or twenty seats being 
vacant in consequence of secession. In this house the Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States acts as President, but has by no means 
so hard a job of work as his brother on the other side of the way. 
Mr. Hannibal Hamlin, from Maine, now fills this chair. I was 
driven, while in Washington, to observe something amounting al- 



CONGRESS. 327 

most to a peculiarity in the Christian names of the gentlemen who 
were then administrating the Government of the country. Mr. 
Abraham Lincoln was the President, Mr. Hannibal Hamlin the 
Vice-President, Mr. Galusha Grow the Speaker of the Eepresenta- 
tives, Mr. Salmon Chase the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Caleb 
Smith the Attorney-General, Mr. Simon Cameron the Secretary 
at War, and Mr. Gideon Welles the Secretary of the Navy. 

In the Senate House, as in the other house, there are very com- 
modious galleries for strangers, running round the entire chambers, 
and these galleries are open to all the world. As with all such 
places in the States, a large portion of them is appropriated to la- 
dies. But I came at last to find that the word lady signified a 
female or a decently dressed man. Any arrangement for classes 
is in America impossible ; the seats intended for gentlemen must 
as a matter of course be open to all men ; but by giving up to the 
rougher sex half the amount of accommodation nominally devoted 
to ladies, the desirable division is to a certain extent made. I 
generally found that I could obtain admittance to the ladies' gal- 
lery if my coat were decent and I had gloves with me. 

All the adjuncts of both these chambers are rich and in good 
keeping. The staircases iare of marble, and the outside passages 
and lobbies are noble in size and in every way convenient. One 
knows well the trouble of getting into the House of Lords and 
House of Commons, and the want of comfort which attends one 
there ; and an Englishman cannot fail to make comparisons injuri- 
ous to his own country. It would not, perhaps, be possible to 
welcome all the world in London as is done in Washington, but 
there can be no good reason why the space given to the public 
with us should not equal that given in Washington. But, so far 
are we from sheltering the public, that we have made our House of 
Commons so small, that it will not even hold all its own members. 

I had an opportunity of being present at one of their field-days 
in the Senate. Slidell and Mason had just then been sent from 
Fort Warren across to England in the Rinaldo. And here I may 
as well say what further there is for me to say about those two 
heroes. I was in Boston when they were taken, and all Boston 
was then full of them. I was at Washington when they were sur- 
rendered, and at Washington for a time their names were the only 
household words in vogue. To me it had, from the first, been a 
matter of certainty that England would demand the restitution of 
the men. I had never attempted to argue the matter on the legal 
points, but I felt, as though by instinct, that it would be so. First 
of all there reached us, by telegram, from Cape Race, rumours of 



328 NORTH AMERICA. 

what the press in England was saying ; — rumours of a meeting in 
Liverpool, and rumours of the feeling in London. And then the 
papers followed, and we got our private letters. It was some 
days before we knew what was actually the demand made by Lord 
Palmerston's cabinet ; and during this time, through the five or 
six days which were thus passed, it was clear to be seen that the 
American feeling was undergoing a great change — or if not the 
feeling, at any rate the purpose. Men now talked of surrender- 
ing these Commissioners as though it were a line of conduct which 
Mr, Seward might find convenient ; and then men went further, 
and said that Mr. Seward would find any other line of conduct 
very inconvenient. The newspapers, one after another, came 
round. That, under all the circumstances, the States Govern- 
ment behaved well in the matter no one, I think, can deny ; but 
the newspapers, taken as a whole, were not very consistent and, I 
think, not very dignified. They had declared with throats of brass 
that these men should never be surrendered to perfidious Albion ; 
but when it came to be understood that in all probability they 
would be so surrendered, they veered round without an excuse, 
and spoke of their surrender as of a thing of course. And thus, 
in the course of about a week, the whole current of men's minds 
was turned. P^or myself, on my first arrival at Washington, I felt 
certain that there would be war, and was preparing myself for a 
quick return to England ; but from the moment that the first whis- 
per of England's message reached us, and that I began to hear how 
it was received and what men said about it, I knew that I need 
not hurry myself. One met a minister here, and a senator there, 
and anon some wise diplomatic functionary. By none of these 
grave men would any secret be divulged ; none of them had any 
secret ready for divulging. But it was to be read in every look 
of the eye, in every touch of the hand, and in every fall of the foot 
of each of them, that Mason and Slidell would go to England. 

Then we had, in all the fulness of diplomatic language. Lord 
Russell's demand and Mr. Seward's answer. Lord Kussell's de- 
mand was worded in language so mild, was so devoid of threat, 
was so free from anger, that at the first reading it seemed to ask 
for nothing. It almost disappointed by its mildness. Mr. Sew- 
ard's reply, on the other hand, by its length of argumentation, by 
a certain sharpness of diction to which that gentleman is addicted 
in his State papers, and by a tone of satisfaction inherent through 
it all, seemed to demand more than he conceded. But, in truth, 
Lord Russell had demanded everything, and the United States 
Government had conceded everything. 



CONGRESS. 329 

I have said that the American Government behaved well in its 
mode of giving the men up, and I think that so much should be 
allowed to them on a review of the whole affair. That Captain 
Wilkes had no instructions to seize the two men is a known fact. 
He did seize them and brought them into Boston harbour, to the 
great delight of his countrymen. This delight I could understand, 
though of course I did not share it. One of these men had been 
the parent of the Fugitive Slave Law ; the other had been great 
in fostering the success of filibustering. Both of them were hot 
secessionists, and undoubtedly rebels. No two men on the conti- 
nent were more grievous by their antecedents and present charac- 
ters to all northern feeling. It is impossible to deny that they 
were rebels against the Government of their country. That Cap- 
tain Wilkes was not on this account justified in seizing them is 
now a matter of history, but that the people of the loyal States 
should rejoice in their seizure was a matter of course. Wilkes 
was received with an ovation, which as regarded him was ill- 
judged and undeserved, but which in its spirit was natural. Had 
the President's Government at that moment disowned the deed 
done by Wilkes, and declared its intention of giving up the men 
unasked, the clamour raised would have been very great, and per- 
haps successful. We were told that the American lawyers were 
against their doing so ; and indeed there was such a shout of tri- 
umph that no ministry in a country so democratic could have ven- 
tured to go at once against it, and to do so without any external 
pressure. 

Then came the one ministerial blunder. The President put 
forth his message, in which he was cunningly silent on the Slidell 
and Mason affair ; but to liis message was appended, according to 
custom, the report from Mr. Welles, the Secretary of the Navy. 
In this report approval was expressed of the deed done by Captain 
Wilkes. Captain Wilkes was thus in all respects indemnified, and 
the blame, if any, was taken from his shoulders and put on to the 
shoulders of that officer who was responsible for the Secretar3^'s 
letter. It is true that in that letter the Secretary declared that 
in case of any future seizure the vessel seized must be taken into 
port, and so declared in animadverting on the fact that Captain 
Wilkes had not brought the ' Trent' into port. But, nevertheless, 
Secretary Welles approved of Captain Wilkes's conduct. He al- 
lowed the reasons to be good which Wilkes had put forward for 
leaving the ship, and in all respects indemnified the captain. Then 
the responsibility shifted itself to Secretary Welles ; but I think it 
must be clear that the President, in sending forward that report, 



SoO NORTH AMERICA. 

took that responsibility upon himself. That he is not bound to 
send forward the reports of his Secretaries as he receives them ; — 
that he can disapprove them and require alteration, wds proved at 
the very time by the fact that he had in this way condemned Sec- 
retary Cameron's report, and caused a portion of it to be omitted. 
Secretary Cameron had unfortunately allowed his entire report to 
be printed, and it appeared in a New York paper. It contained a 
recommendation with reference to the slave question most offens- 
ive to a part of the Cabinet, and to the majority of Mr. Lincoln's 
party. This, by order of the President, was omitted in the official 
way. It was certainly a pity that Mr. Welles's paragraph respect- 
ing the 'Trent' was not omitted also. The President was dumb on 
the matter, and that being so the Secretary should have been dumb 
also. 

But when the demand was made the States Government yielded 
at once, and yielded without bluster. I cannot say I much ad- 
mired Mr. Seward's long letter. It was full of smart special plead- 
ing, and savoured strongly, as Mr. Seward's productions always do, 
of the personal author. Mr. Seward was making an effort to place 
a great State paper on record, but the ars celare artem was alto- 
gether wanting ; and, if I am not mistaken, he was without the 
art itself I think he left the matter very much where he found 
it. The men however were to be surrendered, and the good pol- 
icy consisted in this, — that no delay was sought, no diplomatic 
ambiguities were put into request. It was the opinion of very 
many that some two or three months might be gained by corre- 
spondence, and that at the end of that time things might stand on 
a different footing. If during that time the North should gain 
any great success over the South, the States might be in a posi- 
tion to disregard England's threats. No such game was played. 
The illegality of the arrest was at once acknowledged, and the 
men were given up, — with a tranquillity that certainly appeared 
marvellous after all that had so lately occurred. 

Then came Mr. Sumner's field day. Mr. Charles Sumner is a 
senator from Massachusetts, known as a very hot abolitionist and 
I as having been the victim of an attack made upon him in the Sen- 
ate House by Senator Brookes. Pie was also at the time of which 
I am writing Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which 
position is as near akin to that of a British minister in Parliament 
as can be attained under the existing constitution of the States. 
It is not similar, because such chairman is by no means bound to 
the Government ; but he has ministerial relations, and is supposed 
to be specially conversant with all questions relating to foreign af- 



CONGRESS, 331 

fairs. It was understood that Mr. Sumner did not intend to find 
fault either with England or with the Government of his own 
country as to its management of this matter ; or that, at least, sucl. 
fault-finding was not his special object, but that he was desirous 
to put forth views which might lead to a final settlement of all 
difficulties with reference to the right of international search. 

On such an occasion, a speaker gives himself very little chance 
of making a favorable impression on his immediate hearers if he 
reads his speech from a written manuscript. Mr. Sumner did so 
on this occasion, and I must confess that I was not edified. It 
seemed to me that he merely repeated, at greater length, the argu- 
ments which I had heard fifty times during the last tliirty or forty 
days. I am told that the discourse is considered to be logical, and 
that it " reads" well. As regards the gist of it, or that result 
which Mr. Sumner thinks to be desirable, I fully agree with him, 
as I think will all the civilized world before many years have 
passed. If international law be what the hiAvyers say it is, inter- 
national law must be altered to suit the requirements of modern 
civilization. By those laws, as they are construed, everything is 
to be done for two nations at war with each other; but nothing 
is to be done for all the nations of the world that can manage to 
maintain the peace. The belligerents are to be treated with every 
delicacy, as we treat our heinous criminals ; but the poor neutrals 
are to be handled with unjust rigour, as we handle our unfortu- 
nate witnesses in order that the murderer may, if possible, be al- 
loAved to escape. Two men living in the same street choose to 
pelt each other across the way with brickbats, and the other in- 
habitants are denied the privileges of the footpath lest they should 
interfere with the due prosecution of the quarrel ! It is, I sup- 
pose, the truth, that we English have insisted on this right of search 
with more pertinacity than any other nation. Now in this case 
of Slidell and Mason we have felt ourselves aggrieved, and have 
resisted. Luckily for us there was no doubt of the illegality of 
the mode of seizure in this instance; but who will say that if 
Captain AVilkes had taken the 'Trent' into the harbour of New 
York, in order that the matter might have been adjudged there, 
England would have been satisfied ? Our grievance was, that our 
mail-packet was stopped on the seas while doing its ordinary be- 
neficent work. And our resolve is, that our mail-packets shall 
not be so stopped with impunity. As we were high-handed in 
old days in insisting on this right of search, and as we are high- 
handed now in resisting a right of search, it certainly behoves us 
to see that we be just in our modes of proceeding. Would Cap- 



332 NORTH AMERICA. 

tain Wilkes have been right according to the existing law if he 
had carried the 'Trent' away to New York? If so, we ought not 
to be content with having escaped from such a trouble merely 
through a mistake on his part. Lord Russell says that the 
'Trent's' voyage was an innocent voyage. That is the fact that 
should be established ; not only that the voyage was, in truth, in- 
nocent, but that it should not be made out to be guilty by any in- 
ternational law. Of its real innocency all thinking men must feel 
themselves assured. But it is not only of the seizure that we 
complain, but of the search also. An honest man is not to be 
handled by a policeman while on his daily w^ork, lest by chance 
a stolen watch should be in his pocket. If international law did 
give such power to all belligerents, international law must give it 
no longer. In the beginning of these matters, as I take it, the ob- 
ject was when two powerful nations were at war to allow the 
smaller fry of nations to enjoy peace and quiet, and to avoid if 
possible the general scuffle. Thence arose the position of a neu- 
tral. But it was clearly not fair that any such nation, having pro- 
claimed its neutrality, should, after that, fetch and carry for either 
of the combatants to the prejudice of the other. Hence came the 
right of search, in order that unjust falsehood might be prevented. 
But the seas were not then bridged with ships as they are now 
bridged, and the laws as written were, perhaps, then practical and 
capable of execution. Now they are impracticable and not capa- 
ble of execution. It will not, however, do for us to ignore them if 
they exist ; and therefore they should be changed. It is, I think, 
manifest that our own pretensions as to tiie right of search must 
be modified after this. And noAv I trust I may finish my book 
without again naming Messrs. Slidell and Mason. 

The working of the Senate bears little or no analogy to that of 
our House of Lords. In the first place, the senator's tenure there 
is not hereditary, nor is it for life. They are elected, and sit for 
six years. Their election is not made by the people of their States, 
but by the State Legislature. The two Houses, for instance, of the 
State of Massachusetts meet together and elect by their joint vote 
to the vacant seat for their State. It is so arranged that an en- 
tirely new senate is not elected every sixth year. Instead of this a 
third of the number is elected every second year. It is a common 
thing for senators to be re-elected, and thus to remain in the House 
for twelve and sixteen years. In our Parliament the House of 
Commons has greater political strength and wider political action 
than the House of Lords ; but in Congress the Senate counts for 
more than the House of Representatives in general opinion. Mon- 



^ CONGRESS. 333 

ey bills must originate in the House of Representatives, but that 
is, I think, tlie only special privilege attaching to the public purse 
which the lower House enjoys over the upper. Amendments to 
such bills can be moved in the Senate; and all such bills must 
pass the Senate before they become law. I am inclined to think 
that individual members of the Senate work harder than individ- 
ual representatives. More is expected of them, and any prolonged 
absence from duty would be more remarked in the Senate than in 
the other House. In our Parliament this is reversed. The pay- 
ment made to members of the Senate is 3000 dollars, or 600^. per 
annum, and to a representative, 500/. per annum. To this is added 
certain mileage allowance for travelling backwards and forwards, 
between their own State and the Capitol. A senator, therefore, 
from California or Oregon has not altogether a bad place ; but 
the halcyon days of mileage allowances are, I believe, soon to be 
brought to an end. It is quite within rule that the senator of to- 
day should be the representative of to-morrow. Mr. Crittenden, 
who was senator from Kentucky, is now a member of the Lower 
House from an electoral district in that State. John Quincy 
Adams went into the House of Eepresentatives after he had been 
President of the United States. 

Divisions in the Senate do not take place as in the House of 
Representatives. The ayes and noes are called for in the same 
way ; but if a poll be demanded, the clerk of the House calls out 
the names of the different senators, and makes out lists of the 
votes according to the separate answers given by the members. 
The mode is certainly more dignified than that pursued in the 
other House, where during the ceremony of voting the members 
look very much like sheep being passed into their pens. 

I heard two or three debates in the House of Representatives, 
and that one especially in which, as I have said before, a chapter 
was read out of the book of Joshua. The manner in which the 
Creator's name and the authority of His Word was bandied about 
the house on that occasion, did not strike me favourably. The 
question originally under debate was the relative power of the 
civil and military authority. Congress had desired to declare its 
ascendancy over military matters ; but the army and the Execu- 
tive generally had demurred to this, — not with an absolute denial 
of the rights of Congress, but with those civil and almost silent 
generalities with which a really existing Power so well knows 
how to treat a nominal Power. The ascendant wife seldom tells 
her husband in so many words that his opinion in the house is to 
go for nothing ; she merely resolves that such sliall be the case, 



334 NORTH AMERICA. 

and acts accordingly. An observer could not but perceive that in 
those days Congress was taking upon itself the part, not exactly 
of an obedient husband, but of a husband vainly attempting to as- 
sert his supremacy. " I have got to learn," said one gentleman 
after another, rising indignantly on the floor, " that the military 
authority of our generals is above that of this House." And then 
one gentleman relieved the difficulty of the position by branching 
off into an eloquent discourse against slavery, and by causing a 
chapter to be read out of the book of Joshua. 

On that occasion the gentleman's diversion seemed to have the 
eifect of relieving the House altogether from the embarrassment of 
the original question ; but it was becoming manifest, day by day, 
that Congress was losing its ground, and that the army was be- 
coming indifferent to its thunders : — that the army was doing so, 
and also that ministers were doing so. In the States, the Presi- 
dent and his ministers are not in fact subject to any parliamentary 
responsibility. The President may be impeached, but the member 
of an opposition does not always wish to have recourse to such an 
extreme measure as impeachment. The ministers are not in the 
houses, and cannot therefore personally answer questions. Differ- 
ent large subjects, such as Foreign affairs, Financial affairs, and 
Army matters, are referred to Standing Committees in both 
houses ; and these Committees have relations with the ministers. 
But they have no constitutional power over the ministers; nor 
have they the much more valuable privilege of badgering a minis- 
ter hither and thither by viva voce questions on every point of his 
administration. The minister sits safe in his office — safe there 
for the term of the existing Presidency if he can keep well with 
the President ; and therefore, even under ordinary circumstances, 
does not care much for the printed or written messages of Con- 
gress. But under circumstances so little ordinary as those of 
1861-62, while Washington was surrounded by hundreds of thou- 
sands of soldiers. Congress was absolutely impotent. Mr. Seward 
could snap his fingers at Congress, and he did so. He could not 
snap his fingers at the army ; but then he could go with the army, — 
could keep the army on his side by remaining on the same side with 
the army ; and this, as it seemed, he resolved to do. It must be 
understood that Mr. Seward was not Prime Minister. ^ The Pres- 
ident of the United States has no Prime Minister, — or hitherto 
has had none. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has usually stood 
highest in the Cabinet, and Mr. Seward, as holding that position, 
was not inclined to lessen its authority. He was gradually assum- 
ing for that position the prerogatives of a Premier, and men were 



CONGRESS. 335 

beginning to talk of Mr. Seward's ministry. It may easily be un- 
derstood that at such a time the powers of Congress would be un- 
defined, and that ambitious members of Congress would rise and 
assert on the floor, with that peculiar voice of indignation so com- 
mon in parliamentary debate, " that they had got to learn," &c., 
&c., &c. It seemed to me that the lesson which they had yet to 
learn was then in the process of being taught to them. They were 
anxious to be told all about the mischance at Ball's !BluiF, but no- 
body would tell them anything about it. They wanted to know 
something of that blockade on the Potomac ; but such knowledge 
was not good for them. " Pack them up in boxes, and send them 
home," one military gentleman said to me. And I began to think 
that something of the kind would be done, if they made themselves 
troublesome. I quote here the manner in which their questions, 
respecting the affair at Ball's Bluftj were answered by the Secre- 
tary of War. " Tlie Speaker laid before the House a letter from 
the Secretary at War, in which he says that he has the honour to 
acknowledge the receipt of the resolution adopted on the 6th in- 
stant, to the effect that the answer of the department to the reso- 
lution passed on the second day of the session, is not responsive 
and satisfactory to the House, and requesting a further answer. 
The Secretary has now to state that measures have beeji taken to 
ascertain who is responsible for the disastrous movement at Ball's 
Bluff, but that it is not compatible with the public interest to make 
known those measures at the present time." 

In truth the days are evil for any Congress of debaters, when a 
great army is in camp on every side of them. The people had 
called for the army, and there it was. It was of younger birth 
than Congress, and had thrown its elder brother considerably out 
of favour, as has been done before by many a new-born baby. If 
Congress could amuse itself with a few set speeches, and a field- 
day or two, such as those afforded by Mr. Sumner, it might all be 
very well, — provided that such speeches did not attack the army. 
Over and beyond this, let them vote the supplies and have done 
with it. Was it probable that General Maclellan should have 
time to answer questions about Ball's Bluff, — and he with such a 
job of work on his hands ? Congress could of course vote what 
committees of military inquiry it might please, and might ask 
questions without end; but we all know to what such questions 
lead, when the questioner has no power to force an answer by a 
penalty. If it might be possible to maintain the semblance of re- 
spect for Congress, without too much emban-assment to military 
secretaries, such semblance should be maintained; but if Congress 



336 NORTH AMERICA. 

chose to make itself really disagreeable, then no semblance could 
be kept up any longer. That, as far as I could judge, was the po- 
sition of Congress in the early months of 1862 ; and that, under 
existing circumstances, was perhaps the only possible position that 
it could fill. 

All this to me was very melancholy. The streets of Washing- 
ton were always full of soldiers. Mounted sentries stood at the 
corners of all the streets with drawn sabres, — shivering in the cold 
and besmeared with mud. A military law came out that civilians 
might not ride quickly through the street. Military riders gal- 
loped over one at every turn, splashing about through the mud, 
and reminding one not unfrequently of John Gilpin. Why they 
always went so fast, destroying their horses' feet on the rough 
stones, I could never learn. But I, as a civilian, given, as English- 
men are, to trotting, and furnished for the time with a nimble trot- 
ter, found myself harried from time to time by muddy men with 
sabres, who would dash after me, rattling their trappings, and bid 
me go at a slower pace. There is a building in Washington, built 
by private munificence, and devoted, according to an inscription 
which it bears, *' To the Arts." It has been turned into an army 
clothing establishment. The streets of Washington, night and day, 
were thronged with army waggons. All through the city militarj 
huts and military tents were to be seen, pitched out among the 
mud and in the desert places. Then there was the chosen local- 
ity of the teamsters and their mules and horses — a wonderful 
world in itself; and all within the city ! Here horses and mules 
lived, — or died, — suh dio, with no slightest apology for a stable 
over them, eating their provender from off the waggons to which 
they were fastened. Here, there, and everywhere large houses 
were occupied as the head-quarters of some officer, or the bureau 
of some military official. At Washington and round Washington 
the army was everything. While this was so, is it to be conceived 
that Congress should ask questions about military matters with 
success ? 

All this, as I say, filled me with sorrow. I hate military be- 
longings, and am disgusted at seeing the great affiiirs of a nation 
put out of their regular course. Congress to me is respectable. 
Parliamentary debates, be they ever so prosy, — as with us, or even 
so rowdy, as sometimes they have been with our cousins across the 
water, — engage my sympathies. I bow inwardly before a Speak- 
er's chair, and look upon the elected representatives of any nation 
as the choice men of the age. These muddy, clattering dragoons, 
sitting at the corners of the streets with dirty w^oollen comforters 



CONGRESS. 337 

round their ears, were to me hideous in the extreme. But there 
at Washington, at the period of which I am writing, I was forced 
to acknowledge that Congress was at a discount, and that the 
rough-shod generals were the men of the day. " Pack them up 
and send them in boxes to their several States." It would come 
to that, I thought, or to something like that unless Congress would 
consent to be submissive. "I have yet to learn — !" said indig- 
nant members, stamping with their feet on the floor of the house. 
One would have said that by that time the lesson might almost 
have been understood. 

Up to the period of this civil war Congress has certainly work- 
ed well for the United States. It might be easy to pick holes in 
it ; — to show that some members have been corrupt, others quar- 
relsome, and others again impracticable. But when we look at 
*he circumstances under which it has been from year to year elect- 
ed, — when we remember the position of the newly-populated States 
from which the members have been sent, and the absence through- 
out the country of that old traditionary class of Parliament men 
on whom we depend in England ; Avhen we think how recent has 
been the elevation in life of the majority of those who are and 
must be elected, — it is impossible to deny them praise for intellect, 
patriotism, good sense, and diligence. They began but sixty years 
ago, and for sixty years Congress has fully answered the purpose 
for which it was established. With no antecedents of grandeur, 
the nation, with its Congress, has made itself one of the five great 
nations of the world. And what living English politician will 
say even now, with all its troubles thick upon it, that it is the 
smallest of the five ? When I think of this, and remember the po- 
sition in Europe which an American has been able to claim for 
himself, I cannot but acknowledge that Congress on the whole has 
been conducted with prudence, wisdom, and patriotism. 

The question now to be asked is this, — Have the powers of 
Congress been sufficient, or are they sufficient, for the continued 
maintenance of free government in the States under the constitu- 
tion ? I think that the powers given by the existing constitution 
to Congress can no longer be held to be sufficient ; and that if the 
Union be maintained at all, it must be done by a closer assimila- 
tion of its congressional system to that of our Parliament. But 
to that matter I must allude again, when speaking of the existing 
constitution of the States. 

F 



338 NORTH AMERICA. 

CHAPTER XXm. 

THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 

I HAVE seen various essays purporting to describe the causes 
of this civil war between the North and South ; but they have 
generally been written with the view of vindicating either one 
side or the other, and have spoken rather of causes which 
should, according to the ideas of their writers, have produced 
peace, than of those which did, in the course of events, actual- 
ly produce war. Tliis has been essentially the case with Mr. 
Everett, who in his lecture at New York, on the 4th of July, 
1860, recapitulated all the good things which the North has 
done for the South, and who proved — if he has proved an}«- 
thing — that the South should have cherished the North instead 
of hating it. And this was very much the case also with Mr. 
Motley in his letter to the 'London Times.' That letter is 
good in its way, as is everything that comes from Mr. Motley, 
but it does not tell us why the war has existed. Why is it 
that eight millions of people have desired to separate them- 
selves from a rich and mighty empire, — from an empire which 
was apparently on its road to unprecedented success, and 
which had already achieved wealth, consideration, power, and 
internal well-being ? 

One would be led to imagine from the essays of Mr. Everett 
and of Mr. Motley, that slavery has had little or nothing to do 
with it. I must acknowledge it to be my opinion that slavery 
in its various bearings has been the single and necessary cause 
of the war ; — that slavery being there in the South, this war 
was only to be avoided by a voluntary division, — secession vol- 
imtary both on the part of North and South ; — that in the event 
of such voluntary secession being not asked for, or if asked for 
not conceded, revolution and civil war became necessary, — 
were not to be avoided by any wisdom or care on the part of 
the North. 

The arguments used by both the gentlemen I have named 
prove very clearly that South Carolina and her sister States 
had no right to secede under the constitution ; that is to say, 
that it was not open to them peaceably to take their departure, 
and to refuse further allegiance to the President and Congress 
Avithout a breach of the laws by which they were bound. For 
a certain term of years, namely, from 1781 to 1787, the differ- 
ent States endeavoured to make their way in the world, simply 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAK. 339 

leagued together by certain articles of confederation. It was 
declared that each State retained its sovereignty, freedom, and 
independence ; and that the said States then entered severally 
into a firm league of friendship with each other for their com- 
mon defence. There was no President, no Congress taking 
the place of our Parliament, but simply a congress of delegates 
or ambassadors, two or three from each State, who were to act 
in accordance with the policy of their own individual States. 
It is well that this should be thoroughly understood, not as 
bearing on the question of the present war, but as showing that 
a loose confederation, not subversive of the separate independ- 
ence of the States, and capable of being partially dissolved at 
the will of each separate State, was tried, and was found to fail. 
South Carolina took upon herself to act as she might have act- 
ed had that confederation remained in force ; but that confed- 
eration was an acknowledged failure. National greatness 
could not be achieved under it, and individual enterjjrise could 
not succeed under it. Then in lieu of that, by the united con- 
sent of the thirteen States the present constitution was drawn 
up and sanctioned, and to that every State bound itself in al- 
legiance. In that constitution no power of secession is either 
named or presumed to exist. The individual sovereignty of 
the States had, in the first instance, been thought desirable. 
The young republicans hankered after the separate power, and 
separate name which each might then have achieved ; but that 
dream had been found vain, — and therefore the States, at the 
cost of some fond wishes, agreed to seek together for national 
230wer, rather than run the risks entailed upon separate exist- 
ence. I append to this volume the articles of confederation 
and the constitution of the United States, as they who desire 
to look into this matter may be anxious to examine them with- 
out reference to other volumes. The latter alone is clear 
enough on the subject, but is strengthened by the former in 
proving that under the latter no State could j^ossess the legal 
power of seceding. 

But they who created the constitution, who framed the 
clauses, and gave to this terribly important work what wisdom 
they possessed, did not presume to think that it could be final. 
The mode of altering the constitution is arranged in the con- 
stitution. Such alterations must be proposed either by two- 
thirds of both the houses of the general Congress, or by the 
legislatures of two-thirds of the States ; and must, when so 
proposed, be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 
States. — (Article V.) There can, I think, be no doubt that any 



340 NOKTH AMERICA. 

alteration so carried would be valid ; even though that altera- 
tion should go to the extent of excluding one or any number 
of States from the Union. Any division so made would be 
made in accordance with the constitution. 

South Carolina and the southern States no doubt felt that 
they would not succeed in obtaining secession in this way, and 
therefore they sought to obtain the separation which they want- 
ed by revolution, — by revolution and rebellion, as Naples has 
lately succeeded in her attempt to change her political status ; 
as Hungary is looking to do ; as Poland has been seeking to do 
any time since her subjection ; as the revolted colonies of Great 
Britain succeeded in doing in 1776, whereby they created this 
great nation Avhich is now undergoing all the sorrows of a civil 
war. The name of secession claimed by the South for this 
movement is a misnomer. If any part of a nationality or em- 
pire ever rebelled against the government established on be- 
half of the whole, South Carolina so rebelled when, on the 20th 
November, 1860, she put forth her ordinance of so-called seces- 
sion; and the other southern States joined in that rebellion 
when they followed her lead. As to that fact, there cannot, I 
think, much longer be any doubt in any mind. I insist on this 
especially, repeating perhaps unnecessarily, opinions expressed 
in a former part of this volume, because I still see it stated 
by English writers that the secession ordinance of South Car- 
olina should have been accepted as a jiolitical act by the gov- 
ernment of the United States. It seems to me that no govern- 
ment can in this way accept an act of rebellion without declar- 
ing its own functions to be beyond its own power. 

But what if such rebellion be justifiable, or even reasonable ? 
what if the rebels have cause for their rebellion ? For no one 
will now deny that rebellion may be both reasonable and justi- 
fiable ; or that every subject in the land may be bound in duty 
to rebel. In such case the government Avill be held to have 
brought about its own punishment by its own fault. But as 
government is a wide afi*air, spreading itself gradually, and 
growing in virtue or in vice from small beginnings, — from 
seeds slow to produce their fruits, it is much easier to discern 
the incidence of the punishment than the perpetration of the 
fault. Government goes astray by degrees, or sins by. the ab- 
sence of that wisdom which should teach rulers how to make 
progress, as progress is made by those whom they rule. The 
fault may be absolutely negative and have sjDread itself over 
centuries ; may be, and generally has been, attributable to dull 
good men ; — but not the less does the punishment come at a 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAE. 341 

blow. The rebellion exists and cannot be put down, — will put 
down all that opposes it ; but the government is not the less 
bound to make its fight. That is the j^unishment that comes 
on governing men or on a governing people, that govern not 
well or not wisely. 

As Mr. Motley says in the paper to which I have alluded, 
" No man, on either side of the Atlantic, with Anglo-Saxon 
blood in his veins, will dispute the right of a people, or of any 
portion of a people, to rise against oppression, to demand re- 
dress of grievances, and in case of denial of justice to take up 
arms to vindicate the sacred principle of liberty. Few English- 
men or Americans will deny that the source of government is 
the consent of the governed, or that every nation has the right 
to govern itself according to its will. When the silent consent 
is changed to fierce remonstrance, revolution is impending. 
The right of revolution is indisputable. It is written on the 
whole record of our race. British and American history is 
made up of rebellion and revolution. Hampden, Pym, and 
Oliver Cromwell ; Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, all were 
rebels." Then comes the question whether South Carolina and 
the Gulf States had so suffered as to make rebellion on their 
behalf justifiable or reasonable ; or if not, what cause had been 
strong enough to produce in them so strong a desire for seces- 
sion, — a desire which has existed for fully half the term through 
which the United States has existed as a natiqn, ajid so firm 
a resolve to rush into rebellion with the object of accomplish- 
ing that which they deemed not to be accomplished on other 
terms. 

It must, I think, be conceded that the Gulf States have not 
suffered at all by their connection with the northern States ; 
that in lieu of any such sufferings they owe all their national 
greatness to the northern States ; that they have been lifted 
up by the commercial energy of the Atlantic States and by the 
agricultural prosperity of the western States, to a degree of 
national consideration and respect through the world at large, 
which never could have belonged to them standing alone. I 
will not trouble my readers with statistics which few would 
care to follow, but let any man of ordinary every-day knowl- 
edge turn over in bis own mind his present existing ideas of 
the wealth and commerce of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, 
Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, and compare them with 
his ideas as to New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, 
Richmond, and Memphis. I do not name such towns as Bal- 
timore and St. Louis, which stand in slave States, but which 



342 NOETH AMERICA. 

have raised themselves to prosperity by northern habits. If 
this be not sufficient, let him refer to population tables and ta- 
bles of shipping and tonnage. And of those southern towns 
Vi^hich I have named the commercial wealth is of northern cre- 
ation. The success of New Orleans as a city can be no more 
attributed to Louisianians than can that of the Havana to the 
men of Cuba, or of Calcutta to the natives of India. It has 
been a repetition of the old story, told over and over again 
through every century since commerce has flourished in the 
world ; the tropics can produce, — but the men from the North 
shall sow and reap, and garner and enjoy. As the Creator's 
work has progressed, this privilege has extended itself to re- 
gions further removed and still further from southern influ- 
ences. If we look to Europe, w^e see that this has been so in 
Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands ; in England 
and Scotland ; in Prussia and in Russia ; and the Western 
world shows us the same story. Where is now the glory of 
the Antilles ? where the riches of Mexico, and the power of 
Peru? They still produce sugar, guano, gold, cotton, coflee, 
almost whatever we may ask them, — and will continue to do 
so while held to labour under sufficient restraint ; but where 
are their men, where are their books, where are their learning, 
their art, their enterprise ? I say it with sad regret at the de- 
cadence of so vast a poj^ulation ; but I do say that the southern 
States of America have not been able to keep pace with their 
northern brethren ; — that they have fallen behind in the race^ 
and feeling that the struggle is too much for them, have there- 
fore resolved to part. 

The reasons put forward by the South for secession have 
been trifling almost beyond conception. Northern tariffs have 
been the first, and perhaps foremost. Then there has been a 
plea that the national exchequer has paid certain bounties to 
New England fishermen, of which the South has paid its share 
— getting no part of such bounty in return. There is also a 
complaint as to the navigation laws, — meaning, I believe, that 
the laws of the States increase the cost of coast traffic by for- 
bidding foreign vessels to engage in the trade, thereby increas- 
ing also the price of goods and confining the benefit to the 
North, which carries on the coasting trade of the country, and 
doing only injury to the South which has none of it. Then 
last, but not least, comes that grievance as to the Fugitive 
Slave Law. The law of the land as a whole, — the law of the 
nation, — requires the rendition from free States of all fugitive 
slaves. But the free States will not obey this law. They even 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 343 

pass State laws in opposition to it. " Catch your own slaves," 
they say, "and we will not hinder you; at any rate we will 
not hinder you officially. Of non-official hindrance you must 
take your chance. But we absolutely decline to employ our 
officers to catch your slaves." That list comprises, as I take 
it, the amount of southern official grievances. Southern peo- 
ple will tell you privately of others. They will say that they 
cannot sleej) happy in their beds, fearing lest insurrection should 
be roused among their slaves. They will tell you of domestic 
comfort invaded by northern falsehood. They will explain to 
you how false has been Mrs. Beech er Stowe. Ladies will fill 
your ears and your hearts too with tales of the daily efforts 
they make for the comfort of their " 2)eople," and of the ruin 
to those efforts which arises from the malice of the abolition-' 
ists. To all this you make some answer with your tongue that 
is hardly true, — for in such a matter courtesy forbids the plain 
truth. But your heart within answers truly, " Madam, — dear 
madam, your sorrow is great ; but that sorrow is the necessary 
result of your position." 

As to those official reasons, in what fewest words I can use 
I will endeavour to show that th^ come to nothing. The tar- 
iff—and a monstrous tariff it then was — was the ground put 
forward by South Carolina for secession, when General Jackson 
was President, and Mr. Calhoun was the hero of the South. 
Calhoun bound himself and his State to take certain steps to- 
wards secession at a certain day if that tariff were not abol- 
ished.^ The tariff was so absurd that Jackson and his Govern- 
ment were forced to abandon it, — would have abandoned it 
without any threat from Calhoun ; but under that threat it was 
necessary that Calhoun should be defied. General Jackson 
proposed a compromise tarifi*, which was odious to Calhoun, — 
not on its own behalf, for it yielded nearly all that Avas asked, 
but as being subversive of his desire for secession. The Presi- 
dent, however, not only insisted on his compromise, but de- 
clared his purpose of preventing its passage into law unless 
Calhoun himself, as senator, would vote for it. And he also 
declared his purpose, not, w^e may presume, officially, of hang- 
ing Calhoun if he took that step towards secession which he 
had bound himself to take in the event of the tariff not being 
repealed. As a result of all this Calhoun voted for the com- 
promise, and secession for the time was beaten down. That 
was in 1832, and may be regarded as the commencement of the 
secession movement. The tariff was then a convenient reason, 
aground to be assigned with a colour of justice, because it was 



344 NORTH AMERICA. 

a tariff admitted to be bad. But the tariff has been modified 
again and again since that; and the tariff existing when South 
Carolina seceded in 1860 had been carried by votes from South 
CaroHna. The absurd Morrill tariff could not have caused se- 
cession, for it was passed without a struggle in the collapse of 
Congress occasioned by secession. 

The bounty to fishermen was given to create sailors, so that 
a marine might be provided for the nation. I need hardly 
sho^Y that the national benefit would accrue to the whole na- 
tion for whose protection such sailors were needed. Such a 
system of bounties may be bad, but if so it was bad for the 
whole nation. It did not affect South Carolina otherwise than 
it affected Illinois, Pennsylvania, or even New York. 

The navigation laws may also have been bad. According to 
my thinking such protective laws are bad; but they created 
no special hardship on the South. By any such a theory of 
complaint all sections of all nations have ground of complaint 
against any other s^ctioa Avhich receives special protection un- 
der any law. The drinkers of beer in England should secede 
because they pay a tax, whereas the consumers of paper pay 
none. The navigation laws of the States are no doubt injuri- 
ous to the mercantile interests of the States. I at least have 
no doubt on the subject. But no one will think that secession 
is justified by the existence of a law of questionable expedien- 
cy. Bad laws will go by the board if properly handled by 
those whom they pinch, as the navigation laws went by the 
board with us in England/ 

As to that Fugitive Slave Law, it should be explained that 
the grievance has not arisen from the loss of slaves. I have 
heard it stated that South Carolina, up to the time of the seces- 
sion, had never lost a slave in this way — that is, by northern 
opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law ; and that the total num- 
ber of slaves escaping successfully into the northern States, 
and there remaining through the non-operation of this law, did 
not amount to five in the year. It has not been a question of 
property but of feeling. It has been a political point, and the 
South has conceived — and probably conceived truly — that this 
resolution on the part of northern States to defy the law with 
reference to slaves, even though in itself it might not be im- 
mediately injurious to southern property, was an insertion of 
the narrow end of the wedge. It was an action taken against 
slavery, — an action taken by men of the North against their 
fellow-countrymen in the South. Under such circumstances 
the sooner such countrymen should cease to be their fellows 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 345 

the better it would be for them. That, I take it, was the argu- 
ment of the South ; or at any rate that was its feeling. 

I have said that the reasons given for secession have been 
trifling, and among them have so estimated this matter of the 
Fugitive Slave Law. I mean to assert that the ground actually 
put forward is trifling ; — the loss, namely, of slaves to wliicli 
the South has been subjected. But the true reason pointed at 
in this — the conviction, namely, that the North would not leave 
slavery alone, and would not allow it to remain as a settled in- 
stitution — was by no means trifling. It has been this convic- 
tion on the part of the South, that the North would not live in 
amity with slavery, would continue to fight it under this ban- 
ner or under that, would still condemn it as disgraceful to man 
and rebuke it as impious before God, which has produced re- 
bellion and civil war — and will ultimately produce that division 
for which the South is fighting, and against which the North 
is fighting; and which, when accomplished, will give the North 
new wings, and will leave the South without political greatness 
or commercial success. 

Under such circumstances I cannot think that rebellion on 
the part of the South was justified by wrongs endured or made 
reasonable by the prospect of wrongs to be inflicted- It is dis- 
agreeable, that having to live with a wife who is always rebuk- 
ing one for some special fault ; but the outside Avorld will not 
grant a divorce on that account, especially if the outside world 
is well aware that the fault so rebuked is of daily occurrence. 
"If you do not choose to. he called a drunkard by your wife," 
the outside world will say, "it will be well that you should 
cease !to drink." Ah! but that habit of drinking wlien once 
acquired cannot easily be laid aside. The brain will not work, 
the organs of the body will not perform their functions, the 
blood will not run. The drunkard must drink till he dies. All 
that may be a good ground for divorce, the outside world will 
say ; but the plea should be put in by the sober wife, not by 
the intemperate husband. But what if the husband takes him- 
self ofi* without any divorce and takes with him also his wife's 
property, her earnings, that on which he has lived and his chil- 
dren ? It may be a good bargain still for her, the outside 
world will say ; but she, if she be a woman of spirit, will not 
willingly put up Avith such wrongs. The South has been the 
husband drunk with slavery, and the North has been the ill-j 
used wife. 

Rebeflion, as I have said, is often justifiable, but it is, I think, 
never justifiable on the part of a paid servant of that Govern- 

P2 



346 KOBTH AMERICA. 

ment against wliich it is raised. We must at any rate feel 
that this is true of men in high places, — as regards those men 
to whom by reason of their offices it should specially belong to 
■put down rebellion. Had Washington been the Governor of 
Virginia, had Cromwell been a minister of Charles, had Gari- 
baldi held a marshal's baton under the Emperor of Austria or 
the King of Naples, those men would have been traitors as 
well as rebels. Treason and rebellion may be made one under 
the law, but the mind will always draw the distinction. I, if I 
rebel against the Crown, am not on that account necessarily a 
tmitor. A betrayal of trust is, I take it, necessary to treason. 
I am not aware that Jefferson Davis is a traitor; but that Bu- 
chanan was a traitor admits, I think, of no doubt. Under him 
and with his connivance, the rebellion was allowed to make its 
way. Under him and by his officers' arms and ships, and men 
and money, were sent away from those points at which it was 
known that they would be needed if it were intended to put 
down the coming rebellion, and to those points at which it was 
known that they would be needed if it were intended to foster 
the coming rebellion. But Mr. Buchanan had no eager feeling 
in favour of secession. He was not of that stuff of which are 
made Davis and Toombs and Slidell. But treason was easier 
to him than loyalty. Remonstrance was made to him, point- 
ing out the misfortunes which his action, or want of action, 
Avould bring upon the country. " Not in my time," he an- 
swered. "It will not be in my time." So that he might es- 
cape unscathed out of the fire, this chief ruler of a nation of 
thirty million of men was content to allow treason and rebel- 
lion to work their way ! I venture to say so much here as 
showing how impossible it was that Mr. Lincoln's government, 
on its coming into office, should have given to the South, — not 
what the South had asked, for the South had not asked, — but 
what the South had taken ; what the South had tried to filch. 
Had the South Avaited for secession till Mr. Lincoln had been 
in his chair, I could understand that England should sympa- 
thize with her. For myself I cannot agree to that scuttling of 
the ship by the captain on the day which was to see the trans- 
fer of his command to another officer. 

The southern States were driven into rebellion by no wrongs | 
inflicted on them ; but their desire for secession is not on that J 
account matter for astonishment. It would liave been sur- 
prising had they not desired secession. Secession of one kind, 
a very practical secession, had already been forced upon them 
by circumstances. They had become a separate people, dis- 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 347 

severed from the North by halDitSj^ morals, institutions, pur-l 
suits and every conceivable difference in their modes of thought \ 
and action. They still spoke the same language, as do Austi'ia^ 
and Prussia; but beyond that tie of language they had no bond 
but that of a meagre political union in their Congress at Wash- 
ington. Slavery, as it had been expelled from the North, and 
as it had come to be welcomed in the Bouth, had raised such a 
wall of difference, that true political union was out of the ques- 
tion. It would be juster, perhaps, to say that those physical 
characteristics of the South which had induced this welcoming 
of slavery, and those other characteristics of the North which 
had induced its expulsion, were the true causes of the differ- 
ence. For years and yeaa's this has been felt by both, and the 
fight has been going on. It has been continued for thirty years, 
and almost always to the detriment of the South. In 1845 
Florida and Texas were admitted into the Union as slave States. 
I think that no State had then been admitted, as a free State, 
shice Michigan, in 1836. In 1846 Iowa was admitted as a free 
State, and from that day to this Wisconsin, California, Min- 
nesota, Oregon, and Kansas have been brought into the Union; 
all as free States. The annexation of another slave State to the 
existing Union had become, I imagine, impossible — unless such 
object were gained by the admission of Texas. We all re- 
member that fight about Kansas, and what sort of a fight it 
was ! Kansas lies alongside of Missouri, a slave State, and is 
contiguous to no other State. If the free-soil party could, in 
the days of Pierce and Buchanan, carry the day in Kansas, it 
is not likely that they Avould be beaten on any new ground un- 
der such a President as Lincoln. We have all heard in Europe i 
how southern men have ruled in the White House, nearly from I 
the days of Washington downwards ; or if not southern men, 
northern men, such as Pierce and Buchanan, with southern 
poUtics ; and therefore we have been taught to think that the 
South has been politically the winning party. They have, in 
truth, been the losing party as regards national power. But 
what they have so lost they have hitherto recovered by polit- 
ical address and individual statecraft. The leading men of the 
South have seen their position, and have gone to their work 
with the exercise of all their energies. They organized the 
Democrat party so as to include the leaders among the north- 
ern politicians. They never begrudged to these assistants a 
full share of the good things of official life. They have been 
aided by the fanatical abolitionism of the North, by which the 
Republican party has been divided into two sections. It has 



348 NORTH AMERICA. 

been fashionable to be a Democrat, that is, to hold southern 
politics, and unfashionable to be a Republican, or to hold anti- 
southern politics. In that way the South has lived and strug- 
i^led on against the growing will of the population ; but at last 
/Jthat will became too strong, and when Mr. Lincoln was elect- 
ifed, the South knew that its day was over. 

It is not surprising that the South should have desired se- 
cession. It is not surprising tliat it should have prepared for 
it. Since the days of Mr. Calhoun its leadei'S have always un- 
derstood its position with a fair amount of political accuracy. 
Its only chance of political life lay in prolonged ascendancy at 
Washington. The swelling crowds of Germans, by whom the 
western States were being filled, enlisted themselves to a man 
in the ranks of abolition. What was the acquisition of Texas 
against such hosts as these ? An evil day was coming on the 
southern politicians, and it behoved them to be prepared. As 
a separate nation, — a nation trusting to cotton, having in their 
hands, as they imagined, a monopoly of the staple of English 
manufacture, with a tariff of their own, and those rabid curses 
on the source of all their wealth no longer ringing in their ears, 
;ffhat might they not do as a separate nation.2^ But as a part 
[of the Union, they were too weak to hold their own if once 
itheir political finesse should fail them. That day came upon 
ithem, not unexpected, in 1860, and therefore they cut the cable. 
^ ' And all this has come from slavery. It is hard enoiigh, for 
how could the South have escaped slavery? How, at least, 
could the South have escaped slavery any time during these 
last thirty years ? And is it, moreover, so certain that slavery 
is an unmitigated evil, opposed to God's will, and j^roducing 
all the sorrows which have ever been produced by tyranny and 
wrong ? It is here, after all, that one comes to the difficult 
question. Here is the knot which the fingers of men cannot 
open, and Avhich admits of no sudden cutting with the knife. 
I have likened the slaveholding States to the drunken husband, 
and in so doing have pronounced judgment against them. As 
regards the state of the drunken man, his unfitness for partner- 
ship with any decent, diligent, well-to-do wife, his ruined con- 
dition, and shattered prospects, the simile, I think, holds good. 
But I refrain from saying, that as the fault was originally with 
the drunkard in that he became such, so also has the fault been 
with the slave States. At any rate I refrain from so saying 
here, on this page. That the position of a slave-owner is ter- 
ribly prejudicial, not to the slave of whom I do not here speak, 
but to the owner; — of so much at any rate I feel assured. 



THE CAUSES OF THE AVAR. 349 

That the position is therefore criminal and damnable, I am not 
now disposed to take upon myself to assert. 

The question of slavery in America cannot be handled fully 
and fairly by any one who is afraid to go back upon the sub- 
ject, and take its whole history since one man first claimed 
and exercised the right of forcing labour from another man. 
I certainly am afraid of any such task ; but I believe that there 
has been no period yet, since the world's work began, when 
such a practice has not prevailed in a large portion, probably 
in the largest portion of the world's work-fields. As civiliza- 
tion has made its progress, it has been the duty and delight, 
as it has also been the interest of the men at the top of afl:airs, 
not to lighten the work of the men below, but so to teach them 
that they should recognize the necessity of working without co- 
ercion. Emancipation of serfs and thralls, of bondsmen and 
slaves, has always meant this, — that men having been so taught, 
should then work without coercion. As men become educated 
and aware of the nature of the tenure on which they hold their 
life, they learn the fact that work is a necessity for them, and 
that it is better to work without coercion than with it. When 
men have learned this they are fit for emancipation, but they 
are hardly fit till they have learned so much. 

In talking or writing of slaves, w^e always now think of the 
negro slave. Of us Englishmen it must at any rate be acknowl- 
edged that we have done what in us lay to induce him to rec- 
ognize this necessity for labour. At any rate we acted on the 
presumption that he would do so, and gave him his liberty 
throughout all our lands at a cost which has never yet been 
reckoned up in pounds, shillings, and pence. The cost never 
can be reckoned up, nor can the gain which we achieved in 
purging ourselves from the degradation and demoralization of 
such employment. We come into court with clean hands, hav- 
ing done all that lay with us to do to put down slavery both at 
home and abroad. But when we enfranchised the negroes, we 
did so with the intention, at least, that they should work as 
free men. Their share of the bargain in that respect they 
have declined to keep, wherever starvation has not been the re- 
^sult of such resolve on their part ; and from the date of our 
Emancipation, seeing the position which the negroes now hold 
with us, the southern States of America have learned to regard 
slavery as a permanent institution, and have taught themselves 
to regard it as a blessing, and not as a curse. 

Negroes were first taken over to America because the white 
man could not work under the tropical heats, and because the 



350 NOKTH AMERICA. 

native Indian would not work. The latter people has been, or 
soon will be, exterminated, — polished oif the face of creation, as 
the Americans say, — which fate must, I should say in the long 
run, attend all non-working people. As the soil of the world is 
required for increasing population, the non-working people must 
go. And so the Indians have gone. The negroes under com- 
pulsion did work, and work well ; and under their hands vast 
regions of the western tropics became fertile gardens. The 
fact that they were carried up into northern regions which from 
their nature did not require such aid, that slavery prevailed in 
New York and Massachusetts, does not militate against my 
argument. The exact limits of any great movement will not 
be bounded by its purpose. The heated wax which you drop 
on your letter spreads itself beyond the necessities of your seal. 
That these negroes woul.d not have come to the western world 
without compulsion, or having come, would not have worked 
without compulsion, is, I imagine, acknowledged by all. That 
they have multiplied in the western world and have there be- 
come a race happier, at any rate in all the circumstances of 
their life, than their still untamed kinsmen in Africa, must also 
be acknowledged. Who, then, can dare to wish that all that 
has been done by the negro immigration should have remained 
undone ? 

The name of slave is odious to me. If I know myself I 
would not own a negro though he could sweat gold on my be- 
hoof. I glory in that bold leap in the dark which England 
took with regard to her own West Indian slaves. But I do 
not see the less clearly the difficulty of that position in which 
the southern States have been placed ; and I will not call them 
wicked, impious, and abominable, because they now hold by 
slavery, as other nations have held by it at some period of their 
career. It is their misfortune that they must do so now, — now, 
when so large a portion of the world has thrown oft' the sys- 
tem, spurning as base and profitless all labour that is not free. 
It is their misfortune, for henceforth they must stand alone, 
with small rank among the nations, whereas their brethren of 
the North will still "flame in the forehead of the morning sky." 

When the present constitution of the United States was 
written, — the merit of which must probably be given mainly to 
Madison and Hamilton, Madison finding the French democratic 
element, and Hamilton the English conservative element, — this 
question of slavery was doubtless a great trouble. The word 
itself is not mentioned in the constitution. It speaks not of a 
slave, but of a " person held to service or labour." It neither 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 351 

sanctions, nor forbids slavery. It assumes no power in the 
matter of slavery; and under it, at tlie present moment, all 
Congress A'oting together, with the full consent of the legisla- 
tures of thirty-three States, could not constitutionally put down 
slavery in the remaining thirty-fourth State. In fact the con- 
stitution ignored the subject. 

But nevertheless Washington, and Jefferson from whom 
Madison received his inspiration, were opposed to slavery. I 
do not know that Washington ever took much action in the 
matter, but his expressed opinion is on record. But Jefferson 
did so throughout his life. Before the declaration of independ- 
ence he endeavoured to make slavery illegal in Virginia. In 
this he failed, but long afterwards, w hen the United States was 
a nation, he succeeded in carrying a law by which the further 
importation of slaves into any of the States was prohibited aft- 
er a certain year — 1820. When this law Avas passed, the framers 
of it considered that the gradual abolition of slavery would be 
secured. Up to that period the negro population in the States 
had not been self-maintained. As now in Cuba, the numbers 
h-ad been kept up by new importations, and it Avas calculated 
that the race, when not recruited from Africa, would die out. 
That this calculation was wrong we now know, and the breed- 
ing-grounds of Virginia have been the result. 

At that time there ^vGxe no cotton-fields. Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi were outlying territories. Louisiana had been recently 
jjurchased, but w^as not yet incorporated as a State. Florida 
still belonged to Spain, and was all but unpopulated. Of 
Texas no man had yet heard. Of the slave States, Virginia, 
the tw^o Carolinas, and Georgia w^ere alone wedded to slavery. 
Then the matter might have been managed. But under the 
constitution as it had been framed, and with the existing pow- 
ers of the separate States, there w^as not even then open any 
way by w^hich slavery could be abolished other than by the 
separate action of the States ; nor has there been any such way 
opened since. With slavery these southern States have grown 
and become fertile. The planters have thriven, and the cotton- 
fields have spread themselves. And then came emancipation 
in the British islands. Under such circumstances and with 
such a lesson, could it be expected that the southern States 
should learn to love abolition r 

It is vain to say that slavery has not caused SQCggsion, and \ 
that slavery has not caused the war. That, and that only has I 
been the real cause of this conflict, though other small collat- j 
eral issues may now be put forward to bear the blame. Those \ 



352 NORTH A3IERICA. 

/Other issues have arisen from this question of slavery, and are 
incidental to it and a j^art of it. Massachusetts, as we all know, 
is democratic in its tendencies, hut South Carolina is essential- 
ly aristocratic. This difference has come of slavery. A slave 
country, which has j^i'ogressed far in slavery, must he aristo- 
cratic in its nature, — aristocratic and patriarchal. A large 
\slave-owner from Georgia may call himself a democrat, — may 
sthink that he reveres republican institutions, and may talk 
iwith American horror of the thrones of Europe ; but he must 
tin his heart be an aristocrat. We, in England, are apt to speak 
of republican institutions, and of universal suffrage, Avhich is 
perhaps the chief of them, as belonging equally to all the 
States. In South Carolina there is not and has not been any 
such thing. The electors for the President there are chosen 
not by the people but by the legislature ; and the votes for the 
legislature are limited by a high property qualification. A 
high property qualification is required for a member of the 
House of Representatives in South Carolina; — four hundred 
freehold acres of land and ten negroes is one qualification. 
Five hundred pounds clear of debt is another qualification ; — 
for, where a sum of money is thus named, it is given in English 
money. Russia and England are not more unlike in their po- 
litical and social feelings than are the real slave States and the 
real free-soil States. The gentlemen from one and from the 
other side of the line have met together on neutral ground, 
and have discussed political matters without flying frequently 
at each other's throats, while the great question on which they 
differed was allowed to slumber. But the awakening has been 
coming by degrees, and now the South had felt that it wae 
come. Old John Brown, who did his best to create a servile 
insurrection at Harper's Ferry, has been canonized through the 
N'orth and West, to the amazement and horror of the South. 
The decision in the 'Dred Scott' case, given by the Chief Just- 
ice of the Supreme Court of the United States, has been re- 
ceived with shouts of execration through the North and West. 
The southern gentry have been Uncle-Tommed into madness. 
It is no light thing to be told daily by your fellow-citizens, by 
your fellow-representatives, by your fellow-senators, that you 
are guilty of the one damning sin that cannot be forgiven. All 
this they could partly moderate, partly rebuke, and partly bear 
as long as political power remained in their hands ; but they 
have gradually felt that that wns going, and were prepared to 
cut the rope and run as soon as it was gone. 

Such, according to my ideas, have been the causes of the 



THE CAUSES OP THE WAE. 353 

/ , 

war. But|I cannot defend the South. As long as they could I 
be successful iiTllretr schemes for holding the political power' 
of the nation, th^y were prepared to hold by the nation. Im- . 
mediately those schemes failed, they were prepared to throw 
the nation overboard. In this, there has undoubtedly been 
treachery as well as rebellion./^ Had these politicians been 
honest, — though the political growth of Washington has hard- 
ly admitted of political honesty, — but had these politicians been 
even ordinarily respectable in their dishonesty, they would have 
claimed secession openly before Congress, while yet their own 
President was at the White House. Congress would not have 
acceded. Congress itself could not have acceded under the 
constitution ; but a way would have been found, had the south- 
ern States been persistent in their demand. A way, indeed, 
has been found ; but it has lain through fire mid water, through 
blood and ruin, through treason and theft, and the downfall of 
national greatness. Secession will, I thiiik, be accomplished, 
and the southern Confederation of States will stand something 
higher in the w^orld than Mexico and the republics of Central 
America. Her cotton monopoly will have vanished, and her 
w^ealth will have been wasted. 

I think that history will agree Avith me in saying that the 
northern States had no alternative but war. What concession 
could they make ? Could they promise to hold their peace 
about slavery ? And had they so promised, would the South 
have believed them? They might have conceded secession; 
that is, they might have given all that would have been de- 
manded. But what individual chooses to yield to such de- 
mands ; and if not an individual, — then what people w^ill do 
so ? But in truth they could not have yielded all that was de- 
manded. Had secession been granted to South Carolina and 
Georgia, Virginia would have been coerced to join those States 
by the nature of her property, and with Virginia Maryland 
would have gone, and Washington, the capital. What may 
be the future line of division between the North and the South 
I will not pretend to say ; but that line will probably be dic- 
tated by the North. It may still be hoped that Missouri, Ken- 
tucky, Virginia, and Maryland will go with the North, and be 
rescued from slavery. But had secession been yielded, had the 
prestige of success fallen to the lot of the South, those States 
must have become southern. 

While on this subject of slavery — for in discussing the cause 
of the war, slavery is the subject that must be discussed — I 
cannot forbear to sav a few words about the neo^roes of the 



354 NORTH AMERICA. 

North American States. Tlie republican party of the North 
is divided into two sections, of which one may be called aboli- 
tionist, and the other non-abolitionist. Mr. Lincoln's govern- 
ment presumes itself to belong to the latter, tliougli its tenden- 
cies towards abolition are very strong. The abolition party is 
growing in strength daily. It is but a short time since Wen- 
dell Phillips could not lecture in Boston without a guard of 
police. Now, at this moment of my writing, he is a popular 
hero. The very men who, live years since, were accustomed 
to make speeches, strong as words could frame them, against 
abolition, are now turning round, and if not preaching aboU- 
tion, are patting the backs of those who do so. I heard one 
of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet declare old John Brown to be a hero 
and a martyr. All the Protestant Germans are abolitionists, — 
and they have become so strong a political element in the coun- 
try that many now declare that no future President can be 
elected without their aid. The object is declared boldly. No 
long political scheme is asked for, but instant abolition is want- 
ed ; abolition to be declared while yet the war is raging. Let 
the slaves of all rebels be declared free ; and all slave-owners 
in the seceding States are rebels ! 

One cannot but ask what abolition means, and to what it 
Avould lead. Any ordinance of abolition now pronounced would 
not eifect the emancipation of the slaves, but might probably 
effect a servile insurrection. I will not accuse those who are 
preaching this crusade of any desire for so fearful a scourge on 
the land. They probably calculate that an edict of abolition 
once given would be so much done towards the nltimate win- 
ning of the battle. They are making their hay while their sun 
shines. But if they could emancipate those four million slaves, 
in what w^ay would they then treat them ? How would they 
feed them ? In wdiat way would they treat the ruined owners 
of the slaves, and the acres of land which would lie unculti- 
vated ? Of all subjects with wdiich a man can be called on to 
deal, it is the most difficult. But a New England abolitionist 
talks of it as though no more were required than an open path 
for his humanitarian energies. " I could arrange it all to-mor- 
row morning," a gentleman said to me who is w^ell known for 
his zeal in this cause ! 

Arrange it all to-morrow morning, — abolition of slavery hav- 
ing become a fact during the night! I should not envy that 
gentleman his morning's work. It "Nvas bad enough with us, 
but what w^ere our numbers compared w^ith those of the south- 
ern States ? We paid a price for the slaves, but no price is to 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAE. 355 

be paid in this case. The value of the property would proba- 
bly be lowly estimated at 100^. a piece for men, women, and 
children, or four.hundred miUiou pounds for the whole popula- 
tion. They form the wealth of the South ; and if they were 
bought, what should be done with them ? They are like chil- 
dren. Every slave-owner in the country, — every man who has 
liad ought to do with slaves, — will tell the same story. In 
Maryland and Delaware are men who hate slavery, who would 
be only too happy to enfranchise their slaves ; but the negroes 
who have been slaves are not fit for freedom. In many cases, 
practically, they cannot be enfranchised. Give them their lib- 
erty, starting them well in the world at what expense you 
please, and at the end of six months they will come back upon 
your hands for the means of support. Everything must be 
done for them. They expect food and clothes, and instruction 
as to every simple act of life, as do children. The negro do- 
mestic servant is handy at his own work ; no servant more so ; 
but he cannot go beyond that. He does not comprehend the 
object and purport of continued industry. If he have money 
he will play with it, — will amuse himself with it. If he have 
none, he will amuse himself without it. His work is like a 
school-boy's task ; he knows it must be done, but never com- 
prehends that the doing of it is the very end and essence of his 
life. He is a child in all things, and the extent of prudential 
wisdom to which he ever attains is to disdain emancipation, 
and cling to the security of his bondage. It is true enough 
that slavery has been a curse. Whatever may have been its 
effect on the negroes, it has been a deadly curse upon the 
white masters. 

The preaching of abolition during the war is to me either 
the deadliest of sins or the vainest of follies. Its only immedi- 
ate result possible would be servile insurrection. That is so 
manifestly atrocious, — a wish for it would be so hellish, that I 
do not presume the preachers of abolition to entertain it. But 
if that be not meant, it must be intended that an act of eman- 
cipation should be carried throughout the slave States, — either 
in their separation from the North, or after their subjection 
and consequent reunion with the North. As regards the States 
while in secession, the North cannot operate upon their slaves 
any more than England can operate on the slaves of Cuba. 
But if a reunion is to be a precursor of emancipation, surely 
that reunion should be first effected. A decision in the north- 
ern and western mind on such a subject cannot assist in obtain- 
ing that reunion, — but must militate against the practicability 



356 NORTH AMERICA. 

of such an object. This is so well understood, that Mr. Lincoln 
and his Government do not dare to call themselves abolition- 
ists.* 

Abolition, in truth, is a political cry. It is the banner of de- 
fiance opposed to secession. As the differences between the 
North and South have grown with years, and have swelled to 
the proportions of national antipathy, southern nullification has 
amplified itself into secession, and northern free-soil principles 
have burst into this growth of abolition. Men have not calcu- 
lated the results. Charming pictures are drawai for you of the 
negro in a state of Utopian bliss, OAvning his own hoe and eat- 
ing his own hog ; in a paradise, where everything is bought 
and sold, except liis wife, his little ones, and liimself. But the 
enfranchised negro has always thrown away his hoe, has eaten 
any man's hog but his own, — and has too often sold his daugh- 
ter for a dollar when any such market has been open to him. 

I confess that this cry of abolition has been made peculiarly 
displeasing to me, by the fact that the northern abolitionist is 
by no means willing to give even to the negro who is already 
free that position in tlie world wiiich alone might tend to raise 
him in the scale of human beings, — if anything can so raise him 
and make him fit for freedom. The aboUtionists hold that the 
negro is the white man's equal. I do not. I see, or think that 
I see, that tlie negro is the white man's inferior through laws 
of nature. That he is not mentally fit to cope with white men, 
— I speak of the full-blooded negro, — and that he must fill a 
position simply servile. But the abolitionist declares him to 
be the white man's equal. But yet, when he has him at his 
elbow, he treats him with a scorn which even the negro can 
hardly endure. I will give him political equality, but not social 
equality, says the abolitionist. But even in this he is untrue. 
A black man may vote in New York, but he cannot vote under 
the same circumstances as a white man.,.- He is subjected to 
qualifications which in truth debar him from the poll. A white 
man votes by manhood sufii-age, providing he has been for one 
year an inhabitant of his State ; but a man of colour must have 
been for three years a citizen of the State, and must own a 
property qualification of 50^. free of debt. But political equal- 

* President Lincoln has proposed a plan for the emancipation of slaves in 
the border States, and for compensation to the owners. His doing so proves 
that he regards present emancipation in the Gulf States as quite out of the 
question. It also proves that he looks forward to the recovery of the border 
States for the North, but that he does not look forward to the recovery of the 
Gulf States. 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 357 

ity is not what such men want, nor indeed is it social equality. 
It is social tolerance and social sympathy; and these are denied 
to the negro. An American abolitionist would not sit at table 
with a negro. He might do so iiriEiigland at the house of an 
English duchess ; but in his own country the proposal of such 
a companion would be an insult to him. He will not sit with 
him in a public carriage if he can avoid it. In New York I 
have seen special street-cars for coloured people. The aboli- 
tionist is struck with horror when he thinks that a man and a 
brother should be a slave ; but when the man and the brother 
has been made free, he is regarded with loathing and contempt. 
All this I cannot see with equanimity. There is falsehood in 
it from the beginning to the end. The slave as a rule is well 
treated, — gets all he wants and almost all he desires. The free 
negro as a rule is ill treated, and does not get that considera- 
tion which alone might put him in the worldly position for 
which his advocate declares him to be fit. It is false through- 
out, — this preaching. "The negro is not the white man's equal 
by nature. But to the free negro in the northern States this 
inequahty is increased by the white man's hardness to him. 

In a former book, which I wrote some few years since, I ex- 
pressed an opinion as to the probable destiny of this race in 
tlie West Indies. I will not now go over that question again. 
I then divided the inhabitants of those islands into three classes, 
— the white, the black, and the coloured, taking a nomenclature 
which I found there prevailing. By coloured men I alluded to 
mulattoes, and all those of mixed European and African blood. 
The word " coloured," in the States, seems to apply to the 
whole negro race, whether full-blooded or half-blooded. I al- 
lude to this now because I wish to explain that, in speaking of 
what I conceive to be the intellectual inferiority of the negro 
race, I allude to those of pure negro descent, — or of descent so 
nearly pure as to make the negro element manifestly predom- 
inant. In the West Indies, where I had more opportunity of 
studying the subject, I always believed myself able to tell a 
negro from a coloured man. Indeed the classes are to a great 
degree distinct there, the greater portion of the retail trade of 
the country being in the hands of the coloured people. But 
in the States I have been able to make no such distinction. 
One sees generally neither the rich yelloAv of the West Indian 
mulatto, nor the deep oily black of the West Indian negro. 
The prevailing hue is a dry, dingy brown, — almost dusty in its 
dryness. I have observed but little difference made between 
the negro and the half-caste,— and no difference in the actual 



358 NOETH AMERICA. 

treatment. I have never met in American society any man or 
woman in whose veins there can have been presumed to be any 
taint of African blood. In Jamaica they are daily to be found 
in society. 

Every Englishman probably looks forward to the accomplish- 
ment of abolition of slavery at some future day. I feel as sure 
of it as I do of the final judgment. When or how it shall 
come I will not attempt to foretell. The mode which seems 
to promise the surest success and the least present or future 
inconvenience, would be an edict enfranchising all female chil- 
dren born after a certain date, and all their children. Under 
such an arrangement the negro population would yjrobably die 
out slowly, — very slowly. What might then be the fate of the 
cotton-fields of the Gulf States, who shall dare to say ? It may 
be that coolies from India and from China will then have taken 
the place of the negro there, as they probably will have done 
also in Guiana and the West Indies. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 

Though I had felt Washington to be disagreeable as a city, 
yet I was almost sorry to leave it when the day of my depart- 
ure came. I had allowed myself a month for my sojourn in 
the capital, and I had stayed a month to the day. Then came 
the trouble of packing up, the necessity of calling on a long 
list of acquaintances one after another, the feeling that bad as 
Washington might be, I might be going to places that were 
worse, a conviction that I should get beyond the reach of my 
letters, and a sort of affection which I had acquired for my 
rooms. My landlord, being a coloured man, told me that he 
was sorry I was going. Would I not remain ? Would I come 
back to him ? Had I been comfortable ? Only for so and so 
or so and so, he would have done better for me. No white 
American citizen, occupying the position of landlord, would 
have condescended to such comfortable words. I knew the 
man did not in truth want me to stay, as a lady and gen- 
tleman were waiting to go in the moment I went out ; but I 
did not the less value the assurance. One hungers and thirsts 
after such civil words among American citizens of this class. 
The clerks and managers at hotels, the officials at railway sta- 
tions, the cashiers at banks, the women in the shops ; — ah ! they 
are the worst of all. An American woman who is bound by 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 359 

her position to serve yon, — who is paid in some shape to sup- 
ply your wants, whether to sell you a bit of soap or bring you 
a towel in your bedroom at an hotel, — is, I think, of all human 
creatures, the most insolent. I certainly had a feeling of regret 
at parting with my coloured friend, — and some regret also as 
regards a few that were white. 

As I drove down Pennsylvania Avenue, through the slush 
and mud, and saw, perhaps for the last time, those wretchedly 
dirty horse sentries who had refused to allow me to trot through 
the streets, I almost wished that I could see more of them. 
How absurd they looked, with a whole kit of rattletraps strap- 
ped on their horses' backs behind them, — blankets, coats, can- 
teens, coils of rope, and, always at the top of everything else, a 
tin pot ! No doubt these things are all necessary to a mounted 
sentry, or they would not have been there ; but it always seem- 
ed as though the horse had been loaded gipsy-fashion, in a man- 
ner that I may perhaps best describe as higgledy-piggledy, and 
that there was a want of military precision in the packing. 
The man would have looked more graceful, and the soldier 
more warlike, had the pannikin been made to assume some rig- 
idly fixed position, instead of dangling among the ropes. The 
drawn sabre, too, never consorted well with the dirty outside 
woollen wrapper which generally hung loose from the man's 
neck. Heaven knows, I did not begrudge him his comforter 
in that cold weather, or even his long, uncombed shock of hair ; 
but I think he might have been made more spruce, and I am 
sure that he could not have looked more uncomfortable. As I 
went, however, I felt for him a sort of affection, and wished in 
my heart of hearts that he might soon be enabled to return to 
some more congenial employment. 

I went out by the Capitol, and saw that also, as I then be- 
lieved, for the last time. With all its faults it is a great build- 
ing, and, though unfinished, is eftective ; its very size and pre- 
tension give it a certain majesty. What will be the fate of 
that vast pile, and of those other costly public edifices at Wash- 
ington, should the South succeed wholly in their present enter- 
prise ? If Virginia shouFd ever become a part of the southern 
republic, Washington cannot remain the capital of the northern 
republic. In such case it would be almost better to let Mary- 
land go also, so that the future destiny of that unfortunate city 
may not be a source of trouble, and a stumbling block of op- 
probrium. Even if Virginia be saved, its position will be most 
unfortunate. 

I fancy that the railroads in those days must have been do- 



360 NORTH AMERICA. 

ing a very prosperous business. From New York to Philadel- 
phia, thence on to Baltimore, and again to Washington, I had 
found the cars full ; so full that sundry passengers could not 
find seats. Now, on my return to Baltimore, they were again 
crowded. The stations were all crowded. Luggage-trains were 
going in and out as fast as the rails could carry them. Among 
the passengers almost half were soldiers. I presume that these 
were men going on furlough, or on special occasions ; for the 
regiments were of course not received by ordinary passenger 
trains. About this time a return was called for by Congress 
of all the moneys paid by the government, on account of the 
army, to the lines between New York and Washington. Wheth- 
er or no it was ever furnished I did not hear ; but it was open- 
ly stated that the colonels of regiments received large gratuities 
from certain railway companies for the regiments passing over 
their lines. Charges of a similar nature were made against of- 
ficers, contractors, quartermasters, paymasters, generals, and 
cabinet ministers. I am not prepared to say that any of these 
men had dirty hands. It was not for me to make inquiries on 
such matters. But the continuance and universality of the ac- 
cusations were dreadful. When everybody is suspected of be- 
ing dishonest, dishonesty almost ceases to be regarded as dis- 
graceful. 

I will allude to a charge made against one member of the 
Cabinet, because the circumstances of the case were all ac- 
knowledged and proved. This gentleman employed his wife's 
brother-in-law to buy ships, and the agent so employed pock- 
eted about 20,000^. by the transaction in six months. The ex- 
cuse made was that this profit was in accordance with the usu- 
al practice of the ship-dealing trade, and that it was paid by 
the owners who sold, and not by the Government which bought. 
But in so vast an agency the ordinary rate of profit on such 
business became an enormous sum; and the gentleman who 
made the plea must surely have understood that that 20,000^. 
was in fact paid by the government. It is the purchaser, and 
not the seller, who in fact pays all such fees. The question is 
this, — Should the government have paid so vast a sum for one 
man's work for six months ? And if so, was it well that that 
sum should go into the pocket of a near relative of the Minis- 
ter whose special business it was to protect the government? 

American private soldiers are not pleasant fellow-travellers. 
They are loud and noisy, and swear quite as much as the army 
could possibly have sworn in Flanders. They are, moreover, 
very dirty ; and each man, with his long, thick great-coat, takes 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 361 

Up more space than is intended to be allotted to him. Of 
course, I felt that if I chose to travel in a country while it had 
such a piece of business on its hands, I could not expect tliat 
everything should be found in exact order. The matter for 
wonder, perhaps, was that the ordinary aifairs of life were so 
little disarranged, and that any travelling at all was practica- 
ble. Nevertheless the fact remains that American private sol- 
diers are not agreeable fellow-travellers. 

It was my present intention to go due west across the coun- 
try into Missouri, skirting, as it were, the line of the war which 
had now extended itself from the Atlantic across into Kansas. 
There w^ere at this time three main armies, — that of the Poto- 
mac, as the army of Virginia w^as called, of which Maclellan 
held the command ; that of Kentucky, under General Buell, 
■who was stationed at Louisville on the Ohio ; and the army on 
the Mississippi, which had been under Fremont, and of Avhich 
General Halleck now held the command. To these were op- 
posed the three rebel armies of Beauregard, in Virginia; of 
Johnston, on the borders of Kentucky and Tennessee; and of 
Price, in Missouri. There was also a fourth army in Kansas, 
west of Missouri, under General Hunter ; and while I was in 
Washington another general, supposed by some to be the 
"coming man," was sent down to Kansas to participate in 
General Hunter's command. This was General Jim Lane, 
w^ho resigned a seat in the Senate in order that he might un- 
dertake this military duty. When he reached Kansas, having 
on his route made sundry violent abolition speeches, and pro- 
claimed his intention of sweeping slavery out of the southwest- 
ern States, he came to loggerheads with his superior officer re- 
specting their relative positions. 

On my arrival at Baltimore, I found the j^lace knee-deep in 
mud and slush and half-melted snow. It was then raining 
hard, — raining dirt, not water, as it sometimes does. Worse 
weather for soldiers out in tents could not be imagined, — nor 
for men who were not soldiers, but who nevertheless were com- 
pelled to leave their houses. I only remained at Baltimore one 
day, and then started again, leaving there the greater part of 
my baggage. I had a vague hope, — a hope which I hardly 
hoped to realize, — that I might be able to get through to the 
South. At any rate I made myself ready for the chance by 
making my travelling impediments as light as possible, and 
started from Baltimore, prepared to endure all the discomfort 
which lightness of baggage entails. My route lay over the 
Alleghanies by Pittsburg and Cincinnati, and my first stop- 

Q 



362 NORTH AMEIIICA. 

ping-place was at Ilarrisburg, the political capital of Pennsyl- 
vania. There is nothing special at Harrisburg to arrest any 
traveller; but the local legislature of the State was then sit- 
ting, and I was desirous of seeing the Senate and Representa- 
tives of at any rate one State, during its period of vitality. 

In Pennsylvania the General Assembly, as the joint legisla- 
ture is called, sits every year, commencing their work early in 
January, and continuing till it be finished. The usual period 
of sitting seems to be about ten weeks. In the majority of 
States, the legislature only sits every other year. In this State 
it sits every year, and the representatives are elected annually. 
The senators are elected for three years, a third of the body 
being chosen each year. The two chambers were ugly, con- 
venient rooms, arranged very much after the fashion of the halls 
of Congress at Washington. Each member had his own deskj 
and his own chair. They were placed in the shape of a horse- 
shoe, facing the chairman, before whom sat three clerks. In 
neither house did I hear» any set speech. The voices of the 
Speaker and of the clerks of the houses were heard more fre- 
quently than those of the members ; and the business seemed 
to be done in a dull, serviceable, methodical manner, Jikely to 
be useful to the country, and very uninteresting to the gentle- 
men engaged. Indeed at "Washington also, in Congress, it 
seemed to me that there was much less of set speeches than iu 
our House of Commons. With us there are certain men whom 
it seems impossible to put down, and by whom the time of 
Parliament is occupied from night to night, with advantage to 
no one and with satisfaction to none but themselves. I do not 
think that the evil prevails to the same extent in America, 
either in Congress or in the State legislatures. As regards 
Washingt9n, this good result may be assisted by a salutary 
practice which, as I was assured, prevails there. A member 
gets his speech printed at the Government cost, and sends it 
down free by post to his constituents, without troubling either 
the house with hearing it, or himself with speaking it. I can- 
not but think that the practice might be copied with success 
on our side of the water. 

The appearance of the members of the legislature of Penn- 
sylvania did not impress me very favourably. I do not know 
why we should wish a legislator to be neat in his dress, and 
comely, in some degree, in his personal appearance. There is 
no good reason, perhaps, why they should have cleaner shirts 
than their outside brethren, or have been more particular in 
the use of soap and water, and brush and comb. But I have 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 363 

an idea that if ever our own Parliament becomes dirty, it will 
lose its prestige ; and I cannot but think that the Parliament 
of Pennsylvania would gain an accession of dignity by some 
slightly increased devotion to the Graces. I saw in the two 
houses but one gentleman, a senator, who looked like a Qua- 
ker ; but even he was a very untidy Quaker. 

I paid my respects to the Governor, and found him briskly 
employed in arranging the appointments of officers. All the 
regimental appointments to the volunteer regiments, — and that 
is practically to the whole body of the army,* — are made by 
the State in which the regiments are mustered. When the 
affiiir commenced, the captains and lieutenants were chosen by 
the men ; but it was found that this would not do. When the 
skeleton of a State militia only was required, such an arrange- 
ment was popular and not essentially injurious ; but now that 
war had become a reality, and that volunteers were required 
to obey discipline, some other mode of promotion was found 
necessary. As far as I could understand, the appointments 
were in the hands of the State Governor, Avho however was 
expected in the selection of the superior officers to be guided 
by the expressed wishes of the regiment, when no objection 
existed to such a choice. In the present instance the Govern- 
or's course was very thorny. Certain unfinished regiments 
were in the act of being amalgamated ; — two perfect regiments 
being made up from perhaps five imperfect regiments, and so 
on. But though the privates had not been forthcoming to the 
full number for each expected regiment, there had been no 
such dearth of officers, and consequently the present operation 
consisted in reducing their number. 

Nothing can be much uglier than the State House at Har- 
risburg, but it commands a magnificent view of one of the val- 
leys into which the Alleghany mountains is broken. Harris- 
burg is immediately under the range, probably at its finest 
point, and the railway running west from the town to Pitts- 
burg, Cincinnati, and Chicago passes right over the chain. 
The line has been magnificently engineered, and the scenery is 
very grand. I went over the Alleghanies in midwinter when 
they were covered with snow, but even when so seen they 
were very fine. The view down the valley from Altoona, a 
point near the summit, must in summer be excessively lovely. 
I stopped at Altoona one night with the object of getting about 
among the hills, and making the best of the winter view ; but 

* The army at this time consisted nominally of 660,000 men, of whom 
only 20,000 were regulars. 



364 NOKTH AMERICA. 

I found it impossible to walk. The snow had become frozen, 
and was like glass. I could not i^rogress a mile in any way. 
With infinite labour I climbed to the top of one little hill, and 
when there became aAvare that the descent would be very 
much more difficult. I did get down, but should not choose 
to describe the manner in which I accomplished the descent. 

In running down the mountains to Pittsburg an accident 
occurred which in any other country would have thrown the 
engine off" the line, and have reduced the carriages behind the 
engine to a heap of ruins. But here it had no other effect than 
that of delaying us for three or four hours. The tire of one 
of the heavy driving wheels flew off*, and in the shock the body 
of the wheel itself was broken, one spoke and a portion of the 
circumference of the wheej was carried away, and the steam- 
chamber was ripped open. Nevertheless the train was pulled 
up, neither the engine nor any of the carriages got off* the line, 
and the men in charge of the train seemed to think very ligirtly 
of the matter. I was amused to see how little Avas made of 
the affair by any of the passengers. In England a delay of 
three hours would in itself produce a great amount of grum- 
bling, or at least many signs of discomfort and temporary im- 
happiness. But here no one said a word. Some of the youn- 
ger men got out and looked at the ruined wheel ; but most of 
the passengers kept their seats, chewed their tobacco, and went 
to sleep, in all such matters an American is much more pa- 
tient than an Englishman. To sit quiet, without speech, and 
ruminate in some contorted position of body, comes to him by 
nature. On this occasion I did not hear a word of complaint 
— nor yet a Avord of surprise or thankfulness that the accident 
had been attended with no serious result. " I have got a fur- 
lough for ten days," one soldier said to me. "And I have 
missed every connection all through from Washington here. 
I shall have just time to turn round and go back Avhen I get 
home." But he did not seem to be in any way dissatis- 
fied. He had not referred to his relatives when he spoke of 
" missing his connections," but to his Avant of good fortune as 
regarded raihvay travelling. He had reached Baltimore too 
late for the train on to Harrisburg, and Harrisburg too late 
for the train on to Pittsburg. 'Now he must again reach Pitts- 
burg too late for his further journey. But nevertheless he 
seemed to be well pleased Avith his position. 

Pittsburg is the Merthyr Tydvil of Pennsylvania, — or per- 
haps I should better describe it as an amalgamation of SAvan- 
sea, Merthyr-Tydvil, and South Shields. It is Avithout excep- 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 365 

tion the blackest place which I ever saw. The three English 
towns which I have named are very dirty, but all their com- 
bined soot and grease and diuginess do not equal that of Pitts- 
burg. As regards scenery it is beautifully situated, being at 
the foot of the Alleghany mountains, and at the juncture of 
the two rivers Monongahela and Alleghany. Here, at the 
town, they come together and form the river Ohio. Nothing 
can be more jDicturesque than the site ; for the spurs of the 
mountains come down close round the town, and the rivers are 
broad and swift, and can be seen for miles from heights which 
may be reached in a short walk. Even the filth and wondrous 
blackness of the place are picturesque when looked down upon 
from above. The tops of the churches are visible, and some of 
the larger buildings -may be partially traced through the thick, 
brown, settled smoke. But the city itself is buried in a dense 
cloiid. The atmosphere was especially heavy when I was there, 
and the effect was probably increased by the general darkness 
of the weather. The Monongahela is crossed by a fine bridge, 
and on the other side the ground rises at once, almost with the 
rapidity of a precipice ; so that a commanding view is obtain- 
ed down upon the town and the two rivers and the different 
bridges, from a height immediately above them. I was never 
more in love with smoke and dirt than when I stood here and 
watched the darkness of night close in upon the floating soot 
which hovered over the housetops of the city. I cannot say 
that I saw the sun set, for there was no sun. I should say that 
the sun never shone at Pittsburg, — as foreigners who visit Lon- 
don in November declare that the sun never shines there. 

Walking along the river-side I counted thirty-two steamers, 
all beached upon the shore with their bows towards the land 
— large boats, capable probably of carrying from one to two 
hundred passengers each, and about 300 tons of merchandise. 
On inquiry I found that many of these Avere not now at work. 
They were resting idle, the trade down the Mississippi below 
St. Louis having been cut off by the war. Many of them, how- 
ever, W' ere still running, the passage down the river being open 
to Wheeling in Virginia, to Portsmouth, Cincinnati and the 
whole of South Ohio, to Louisville in Kentucky, and to Cairo 
in Illinois, where the Ohio joins the Mississippi. The amount 
of traffic carried on by these boats while the country was at 
peace within itself was very great, and conclusive as to the in- 
creasing prosperity of the people. It seems that everybody 
travels in America, and that nothing is thought of distance. 
A young man will step into a car and sit beside you, with that 



366 NORTH AMERICA. 

easy, careless air which is common to a railway passenger in 
England who is passing from one station to the next ; and on 
conversing with him you will find that he is going seven or 
eight hundred miles. He is supplied with fresh newspapers 
three or four times a day as he passes by the towns at which 
they are published ; he eats a large assortment of gum-drops 
and apples, and is quite as much at home as in his own house. 
On board the river boats it is the same with him, Avith this ex- 
ception, that when there he can get whisky when he wants it. 
He knows nothing of the ennui of travelling, and never seems 
to long for the end of his journey, as travellers do with us. 
Should his boat come to grief upon the river, and lie by for a 
(iay or a night, it does not in the least disconcert him. He 
seats himself upon three chairs, takes a bite of tobacco, thrusts 
his hands into his trousers pockets and revels in an elysium of 
his own. 

I was told that the stockholders in these boats were in a bad 
way at the present time. There were no dividends going. The 
same story was repeated as to many and many an investment. 
Where the war created business, as it had done on some of the 
main lines of railroad and in some special towns, money was 
passing very freely ; but away from this, ruin seemed to have 
fallen on the enterprise of the country. Men were not broken- 
hearted, nor were they even melancholy ; but they were simply 
ruined. That is nothing in the States, so long as the ruined 
man has the means left to him of supplying his daily wants till 
he can start himself again in life. It is almost the normal con- 
dition of the American man in business ; and therefore I am 
inclined to think that when this war is over, and things begin 
to settle themselves into new grooves, commerce will recover 
herself more quickly there than she would do among any other 
people. It is so common a thing to hear of an enterprise that 
has never paid a dollar of interest on the original outlay, — of 
hotels, canals, raih'oads, banks, blocks of houses, &c., that never 
paid even in the happy days of peace, — that one is tempted to 
disregard the absence of dividends, and to believe that such a 
trifling accident will not act as any check on future speculation. 
In no country has pecuniary ruin been so common as in the 
States ; but then in no country is pecuniary ruin so little ruin- 
ous. " We are a recuperative people," a west-country gentle- 
man once said to me. I doubted the propriety of his word, 
but I acknowledged the truth of his assertion. 

Pittsburg and Alleghany, which latter is a town similar in its 
nature to Pittsburg on the other side of the river of the same 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 367 

name, regard themselves as places apart ; but they are in effect 
one and the same city. They live under the same blanket of 
soot, which is woven by the joint efforts of the two places. 
Their united population is 135,000, of which Alleghany owns 
about 50,000. The mdustry of the towns is of that sort which 
arises from a union of coal and iron in the vicinity. The Penn- 
sylvanian coalfields are the most prolific in the Union ; and Pitts- 
burg is therefore great, exactly as Merthyr-Tydvil and Birming- 
ham are great. But the foundry-work at Pittsburg is more 
nearly allied to the heavy, rough works of the Welsh coal me- 
tropolis than to the finish and polish of Birmingham. 

" Why cannot you consume your own smoke ?" I asked^ a 
gentleman there. "Fuel is so cheap that it would not pay," 
he answered. His idea of the advantage of consuming smoke 
was confined to the question of its paying as a simple operation 
in itself. The consequent cleanliness and improvement in the 
atmosphere had not entered into his calculations. Any such 
result might be a fortuitous benefit, but was not of suflicient 
importance to make any efibrt in that direction expedient on 
its own account. " Coal was burned," he said, " in the found- 
ries at something less than two dollars a ton ; while that w^as 
the case, it could not answer the purpose of any iron-founder to 
put up an apparatus for the consumption of smoke." I did 
not pursue the argument any further, as I perceived that we 
were looking at the matter from two different points of view. 

Everything in the hotel Avas black ; not black to the eye, for 
the eye teaches itself to discriminate colours even when loaded 
with dirt, but black to the touch. On coming out of a tub of 
water my foot took an impress from the carpet exactly as it 
would have done had I trod barefooted on a path laid with soot. 
I thought that I was turning negro upwards, till I put my wet 
hand upon the carpet, and found that the result was the same. 
And yet the carpet was green to the eye, — a dull, dingy green, 
but still green. " You shouldn't damp your feet," a man said 
to me, to whom I mentioned the catastrophe. Certainly Pitts- 
burg is the dirtiest place I ever saw, but it is, as I said before, 
very picturesque in its dirt when looked at from above the 
blanket. 

From Pittsburg I went on by train to Cincinnati, and was 
soon in the State of Ohio. I confess that I have never felt any 
great regard for Pennsylvania. It has always had in my esti- 
mation a low character for commercial honesty, and a certain 
flavour of pretentious hypocrisy. This probably has been much 
owing to the acerbity and pungency of Sydney Smith's witty 



3G8 NORTH AMERICA. 

denunciations against the drab-coloured State. It is noted for 
repudiation of its own debts, and for sharpness in exaction of 
its own bargains. It has been always smart in banking. It 
has given Buchanan as a President to the country, and Came- 
ron as a Secretary at War to the Government ! When the 
battle of Bull's Run was to be fought, Pennsylvanian soldiers 
were the men who, on that day, threw down their arms because 
the three months' term for which they had been enlisted was 
then expired ! Pennsylvania does not in my mind stand on a 
par with Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Illinois, or 
Virginia. We are apt to connect the name of Benjamin Frank- 
lin with Pennsylvania, but Franklin was a Boston man. Nev- 
ertheless, Pennsylvania is rich and prosperous. Indeed it bears 
all those marks which Quakers generally leave behind them. 

I had some little personal feeling in visiting Cincinnati, be- 
cause my mother had lived there for some time, and had there 
been concerned in a commercial enterprise, by which no one, I 
believe, made any great sum of money. Between thirty and. 
forty years ago she built a bazaar in Cincinnati, which I was as- 
sured by the present owner of the house, was at the time of its 
erection considered to be the great building of the town. It 
has been sadly eclipsed now, and by no means rears its head 
proudly among the great blocks around it. It had become a 
" Physico-medical Institute" when I was there, and was under 
the dominion of a quack doctor on one side, and of a college 
of rights-of- women female medical professors on the other. "I 
believe, sir, no man or woman ever yet made a dollar in that 
building ; and as for rent, I don't even expect it." Such was 
the account given of the unfortunate bazaar by the present pro- 
prietor. 

Cincinnati has long been known as a great town, — conspicu- 
ous among all towns for the number of hogs which are there 
killed, salted, and packed. It is the great hog metropolis of 
the western States ; but Cincinnati has not grown with the ra- 
pidity of other towns. It has now 170,000 inhabitants, but 
then it got an early start. St. Louis, which is west of it again, 
near the confluence of the' Missouri and Mississippi, has gone 
ahead of it. Cincinnati stands on the Ohio river, separated by 
a ferry from Kentucky, which is a slave State. Ohio itself is a 
free-soil State. When the time comes for arranging the line 
of division, if such time shall ever come, it will be very hard to 
say where northern feeling ends and where southern wishes 
commence. Newport and Covington, which are in Kentucky, 
are suburbs of Cincinnati ; and yet in these places slavery is rife. 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 369 

Tlie domestic servants are mostly slaves, though it is essential 
that those so kept should be known as slaves who "will not run 
away. It is understood that a slave who escapes into Ohio Avill 
not be caught and given up by the intervention of the Ohio po- 
lice ; and from Covington or Newport any slave can escape into 
Ohio with ease. But when that division takes place, no river 
like the Ohio can form the boundary betw^een the divided na- 
tions. Such rivers are the highways, round which in this coun- 
try people have clustered themselves. A river here is not a 
natural barrier, but a connecting street. It w^ould be as -well 
to make a railway a division, or the centre line of a city a na- 
tional boundary. Kentucky and Ohio States are joined togeth- 
er by the Ohio river, with Cincinnati on one side and Louisville 
on the other ; and I do not think that man's act can upset these 
ties of nature. But between Kentucky and Tennessee there is 
no such bond of union. There a mathematical line has been 
simply drawn, a continuation of that line w^hicli divides Vir- 
ginia from North Carolina, to Avhich two latter States Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee belonged when the thirteen original States 
first formed themselves into a union. But that mathematical 
line has offered no peculiar advantages to population. No 
great towns cluster there, and no strong social interests w^ould 
be dissevered should Kentucky throw in her lot with the 
North, and Tennessee w4th the South ; but Kentucky owns a 
quarter of million of slaves, and those slaves must either be eman- 
cipated or removed before such a junction can be firmly settled. 
The great business of Cincinnati is hog-killing now, as it used 
to be in the old days of which I have so often heard. It seems 
to be an established fact, that in this portion of the world the 
porcine genus are all hogs. One never hears of a pig. With 
us a trade in hogs and pigs is subject to some little contumely. 
There is a feeling, w^hich has perhaps never been expressed in 
w^ords, but which certainly exists, that these animals are not so 
honourable in their bearings as sheep and oxen. It is a preju- 
dice which by no means exists in Cincinnati. There hog kill- 
ing and salting and packing are very honourable, and the great 
men in the trade are the merchant princes of the city. I went 
to see the performance, feeling it to be a duty to inspect every- 
where that which I found to be of most importance ; but I 
•will not describe it. There were a crowd of men operating, 
and I Avas told that the point of honour was to " put through" 
a hog a minute. It must be understood that the anipial enters 
upon the ceremony alive, and comes out in that cleanly, disem-. 
bowelled guise in which it may sometimes be seen hanging up 

6 2 



370 NOETH AMERICA. 

previous to the operation of the pork-bntcher's knife. To one 
special man was appointed a performance which seemed to be 
specially disagreeable, so that he appeared desiDicable in my 
eyes ; but Avhen on inquiry I learned that he earned five dol- 
lars, or a pound sterling, a day, my judgment as to his position 
was reversed. And after all what matters the ugly nature of 
such an occupation when a man is used to it ? 

Cincinnati is like all other American towns, with second, 
third, and fourth streets, seventh, eighth, and ninth streets, and 
so on. Then the cross-streets are named chiefly from trees. 
Chesnut, walnut, locust, &c. I do not know whence has come 
this fancy for naming streets after trees in the States, but it is 
very general. The town is well built, with good fronts to many 
of the houses, with large shops and larger stores ; — of course 
also with an enormous hotel, Avhich has never paid anything 
like a proper dividend to the speculator who built it. It is al- 
ways the same story. But these towns shame our provincial 
towns by their breadth and grandeur. I am afraid that specu- 
lators with us are trammelled by an " ignorant impatience of 
ruin." I should not myself like to live in Cincinnati or in any 
of these towns. They are slow, dingy, and uninteresting; but 
they all possess an air of substantial, civic dignity. It must 
however be remembered that the Americans live much more 
in towns than we do. All with us that are rich and aristocratic 
and luxurious live in the country, frequenting the metropolis 
for only a portion of the year. But all that are rich and aris- 
tocratic and luxurious in the States live in the towns. Our pro- 
vincial towns are not generally chosen as the residences of our 
higher classes. 

Cincinnati has 170,000 inhabitants, and there are 14,000 chil- 
dren at the free schools, — which is about one in twelve of the 
whole population. This number gives the average of scholars 
throughout the year ended 30th June, 1861. But there are 
other schools in Cincinnati, — parish schools and private schools, 
and it is stated to me that there were in all 32,000 children at- 
tending school in the city throughout the year. The education 
at the State schools is very good. Thirty-four teachers are 
employed, at an average salary of 92/. each, ranging from 26'0/. 
to 60/. per annum. It is in this matter of education that the 
cities of the free States of America have done so much for the 
civilization and welfare of their population. This fact cannot 
be repeated in their praise too often. Those who have the 
management of affairs, who are at the top of the tree, are de- 
sirous of giving to all an opportunity of raising themselves 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 3 71 

in the scale of human beings. I dislike universal sulFrage ; I 
dislike vote by ballot ; I dislike above all things the tyranny of 
democracy. But I do like the political feeling — for it is a po- 
litical feeling — which induces every educated American to lend 
a hand to the education of his fellow-citizens. It shows, if 
nothing else does so, a germ of truth in that doctrine of equal- 
ity. It is a doctrine to be forgiven when he who preaches it 
is in truth striving to raise others to his own level; — though 
utterly unpardonable when the preacher would pull down oth- 
ers to his level. 

Leaving Cincinnati I again entered a slave State, namely, 
Kentucky. When the war broke out Kentucky took upon it- 
self to say that it would be neutral, as if neutrality in such a 
position could by any means have been possible ! Neutrality 
on the borders of secession, on the battle-field of the coming 
contest, was of course impossible. Tennessee, to the south, had 
joined the South by a regular secession ordinance. Ohio, Illi- 
nois, and Indiana to the north were ot course true to the Union. 
Under these circumstances it became necessary that Kentucky 
should choose her side. With the exception of the little State 
of Delaware, in which from her position secession would have 
been impossible, Kentucky was, I think, less inclined to rebel- 
lion, more desirous of standing by the North, than any other 
of the slave States. She did all she could, however, to put olF 
the evil day of so evil a choice. Abolition within her borders 
was held to be abominable as strongly as it was so held in 
Georgia. She had no sympathy and could have none with the 
teachings and preachings of Massachusetts. But she did not 
wish to belong to a Confederacy of which the northern States 
were to be the declared enemy, and be the border State of the 
South under such circumstances. She did all she could for per- 
sonal neutrality. She made that effort for general reconcilia- 
tion of which I have spoken as the Crittenden compromise. 
But compromises and reconciliation were not as yet possible, 
and therefore it was necessary that she should choose her part. 
Her Governor declared for secession ; and at first also her leg- 
islature was inclined to follow the Governor. But no overt 
act of secession by the State was committed, and at last it was 
decided that Kentucky should be declared to be loyal. It was 
in fact divided. Those on the southern border joined the se- 
cessionists, whereas the greater portion of the State, containing 
Frankfort the capital and the would-be secessionist Governor 
who lived there, joined the North. Men in fact became union- 
ists or secessionists, not by their own conviction, but through 



372 NORTH AMERICA. 

the necessity of their positions ; and Kentucky, through the 
necessity of her position, became one of the scenes of civil war. 
I must confess that the difficulty of the position of the whole 
coitfitry seems to me to have been under-estimated in England. 
In common life it is not easy to arrange the circumstances of a 
divorce between man and wife, all whose belongings and asso- 
ciations have for many years been in common. Their children, 
their money, their house, their friends, their secrets, have been 
joint property and have formed bonds of union. But yet such 
quarrels may arise, such mutual antipathy, such acerbity and 
even ill-usage, that all who know them admit that a separation 
is needed. So it is here in the States. Free-soil and slave-soil 
could, while both were young and unused to power, go on to- 
gether, — not without many jars and imhappy bickerings ; but 
they did go on together. But now they must part ; and how 
shall the parting be made? With which side shall go this 
child, and who shall remain in possession of that pleasant 
homestead ? Putting secession aside, there were in the United 
States two distinct political doctrines, of which the extremes 
w^ere opposed to each other as pole is opposed to pole. We 
have no suc"h variance of creed, no such radical diiference as to 
the essential rules of life between parties in our country. We 
have no such cause for personal rancour in our Parliament as 
has existed for some years past in both Houses of Congress. 
These two extreme parties were the slave-owners of the South 
and the abolitionists of the North and West. Fifty years ago 
the former regarded the institution of slavery as a necessity of 
their position, — generally as an evil necessity, — and generally 
also as a custom to be removed in the course of years. Gradu- 
ally they have learned to look upon slavery as good in itself, 
and to believe that it has been the source of their wealth and 
the strength of their position. They have declared it to be a 
blessing inalienable, — that should remain among them for ever 
— as an inheritance not to be touched, and not to be spoken of 
with hard words. Fifty years ago the abolitionists of the 
North differed only in opinion from the slave-owners of the 
South in hoping for a speedier end to this stain upon the na- 
tion ; and in thinking that some action should be taken towards 
the final emancipation of the bondsmen. But they also have 
progressed ; and as the southern masters have called the insti- 
tution blessed, they have called it accursed. Their numbers 
have increased, and with their numbers their power and their 
violence. In this way two parties have been formed who could 
not look on each other without hatred. An intermediate doc- 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 373 

trine has been held by men who were nearer in their sympa- 
thies to the slave-owners than to the abolitionists; but who 
were not disposed to justify slavery as a thing apart. These 
men have been aware that slavery has existed in accordance 
with the constitution of their country, and have been willing to 
attach the stain which accompanies the institution to the indi- 
vidual State which entertains it, and not to the national Gov- 
ernment, by which the question has been constitutionally ig- 
nored. The men who have participated in the Government 
have naturally been inclined towards the middle doctrine ; but 
as the two extremes have retreated further from each other, 
the power of this middle-class of politicians has decreased. 
Mr. Lincoln, though he does not now declare himself an aboli- 
tionist, was elected by the abolitionists; and when, as a conse- 
quence of that election, secession was threatened, no step which 
he could have taken would have satisfied the South w^hich had 
opposed him, and been at the same time true to the North 
which had chosen him. But it was possible that his Govern- 
ment might save Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. 
As Radicals in England become simple Whigs when they are 
admitted into pubhc offices, so did Mr. Lincoln with his gov- 
ernment become anti-abolitionist when he entered on his func- 
tions. Had he combated secession with, emancipation of the 
slaves, no slave State would or could have held by the Union. 
Abolition for a lecturer may be a telling subject. It is easy to 
bring down rounds of applause by tales of the wrongs of bond- 
age. But to men in office, abolition was too stern a reality. 
It signified servile insurrection, absolute ruin to all southern 
slave-owners, and the absolute enmity of every slave State. 

But that task of steering between the two has been very 
difficult. I fear that the task of so steering with success is al- 
most impossible. In England it is thought that Mr. Lincoln 
might have maintained the Union by compromising matters 
with the South, — or if not so, that he might have maintained 
peace by yielding to the South. But no such power was in his 
hands. While we were blaming him for opposition to all south- 
ern terms, his own friends in the North were saying that all 
principle and truth was abandoned for the sake of such States 
as Kentucky and Missouri. " Virginia is gone ; Maryland can- 
not go. And slavery is endured and the new virtue of Wash- 
ington is made to tamper with the evil one, in order that a 
show of loyalty may be preserved in one or two States which 
after all are not truly loyal!" That is the accusation made 
•against the government by the abolitionists ; and that made by 



374 NORTH AMERICA. 

US on the other side is the reverse. I believe that Mr. Lincoln 
had no alternative but to fight, and that he was right also not 
to fight Avith abolition as his battle-cry. That he may be forced 
by his own friends into that cry, is, I fear, still possible. Ken- 
tucky at any rate did not secede in bulk. She still sent her 
senators to Congress, and allowed herself to be reckoned among 
the stars in the American firmament. But she could not escape 
the presence of the war. Did she remain loyal or did she se- 
cede, that was equally her fate. 

The day before I entered Kentucky a battle was fought in 
that State, which gave to the northern arms their first actual 
victory. It was at a place called Mill Spring, near Somerset, 
towards the south of the State. General Zollicofi*er, with a 
Confederate army, numbering, it was supposed, some eight 
thousand men, had advanced ujjon a smaller Federal force, 
commanded by General Thomas, and had been himself killed, 
while his army was cut to pieces and dispersed ; the cannon of 
the Confederates were taken, and their camp seized and de- 
stroyed. Their rout was complete ; but in this instance again 
the advancing party had been beaten, as had, I believe, been 
the case in all the actions hitherto fought throughout the waV. 
Here, however, had been an actual victory, and it was not sur- 
prising that in Kentucky loyal men should rejoice greatly, and 
begin to hope that the Confederates would be beaten out of the 
State. Unfortunately, however, General Zolllcofier's army had 
only been an ofishoot from the main rebel army in Kentucky. 
Buell, commanding the Federal troops at Louisville, and Syd- 
ney Johnston, the Confederate General, at Bowling Green, as 
yet remained opposite to each other, and the work was still to 
be done. 

I visited the little towns of Lexington and Frankfort, in Ken- 
tucky. At the former I found in the hotel to which I went sev- 
enty-five teamsters belonging to the army. They were hang- 
ing about the great hall when I entered, and clustering round 
the stove in the middle of the chamber ; — a dirty, rough, quaint 
set of men, clothed in a wonderful variety of garbs, but not dis- 
orderly or loud. The landlord apologized for their presence, 
alleging that other accommodation could not be found for them 
in the town. He received, he said, a dollar a day for feeding 
them, and for supplying them with a place in which they could 
lie down. It did not pay him, — but what could he do? Such 
an apology from an American landlord was in itself a surpris- 
ing fact. Such high functionaries are, as a rule, men inclined 
to tell a traveller that if he does not like the guests among 



WASHIXGTO^ TO ST. LOUIS. 375 

whom he finds himself, he may go elsewhere. But this land- 
lord had as yet filled the place for not more than two or three 
weeks, and was unused to the dignity of his position. 'While 
I was at supper, the seventy-five teamsters were summoned 
into the common eating-room by a loud gong, and sat down to 
their meal at the public table. They were very dirty ; I doubt 
whether I ever saw dirtier men ; but they were orderly and 
well-behaved, and but for their extreme dirt migjit have passed 
as the ordinar/ occupants of a well-filled hotel in the West. 
Such men, in the States, are less clumsy with their knives and 
forks, less astray in an unused position, more intelligent in 
adapting themselves to a new life than are Englishmen of the 
same rank. It is always the same story. With us there is no 
level of society. Men stand on a long staircase, but the crowd 
congregates near the bottom, and the lower steps are very 
broad. In. America men stand u*pon a common platform, but 
the platform is raised above the ground, though it does not 
approach in height the top of our staircase. If we take the 
average altitude in the two countries, we shall find that the 
American heads are the more elevated of the two. I conceived 
rather an afiection. for those dirty teamsters ; they answered 
me civilly when I spoke to them, and sat in quietness, smoking 
their pipes, with a dull and dirty, but orderly demeanour. 

The country about Lexington is called the Blue Grass Re- 
gion, and boasts itself as of peculiar fecundity in the matter of 
pasturage. Why the grass is called blue, and or in what way 
or at what period it becomes blue, I did not learn ; but the 
country is very lovely and very fertile. Between Lexington 
and Frankfort a large stock farm, extending over three thou- 
sand acres, is kept by a gentleman, who is very well known 
as a breeder of horses, cattle, and sheep. He has spent much 
mpney on it, and is making for himself a Kentucky elysium. 
He was kind enough to entertain me for a while, and showed 
me something of country life in Kentucky. A farm in that 
part of the State depends, and must depend, chiefly on slave- 
labour. The slaves are a material part of the estate, and as 
they are regarded by the law as real property — being actually 
adstricti glebse — an inheritor of land has no alternative but to 
keep them. A gentleman in Kentucky does not sell his slaves. 
To do so is considered to be low and mean, and is opposed to 
the aristocratic traditions of the country. A man who does so 
willingly, puts himself beyond the pale of good-fellowship with 
his neighbours. A sale of slaves is regarded as a sign almost 
of bankruptcy. If a man cannot pay his debts, his creditors 



376 NORTH AMERICA. 

can step in and sell his slaves ; but he does not himself make 
the sale. When a man owns more slaves than he needs, he 
hires them out by the year; and when he requires more than 
he owns, he takes them on hire by the year. Care is taken in 
such hirings not to remove a married man away from his home. 
The price paid for a negro's labour at the time of my visit was 
about a hundred dollars, or twenty pounds, for the year ; but 
this price was then extremely low in consequence of the war 
disturbances. The usual price had been about fifty or sixty 
per cent, above this. The man who takes the negro on hire 
feeds him, clothes him, provides him with a bed, and supplies 
him with medical attendance. I went into some of their cot- 
tages on the estate which I visited, and was not in the least 
surprised to find them preferable in size, furniture, and all ma- 
terial comforts to the dwellings of most of our own agricultur- 
al labourers. Any comparison between the material comfort 
of a Kentucky slave and an English ditcher and delver would 
be preposterous. The Kentucky slave never wants for clothing 
fitted to the weather. He eats meat tAvice a day, and has three 
good meals ; he knows no limit but his own appetite ; his work 
is light ; he has many varieties of amusement ; he has instant 
medical assistance at all periods of necessity for himself, his 
wife, and his children. Of course he pays no rent, fears no 
baker, and knows no hunger. I would not have it supposed 
that I conceive slavery Avith all these comforts to be equal to 
freedom without them ; nor do I conceive that the negro can 
be made equal to the white man. But in discussing the con- 
dition of the negro, it is necessary that we should imderstand 
what are the advantages of which abolition would deprive him, 
and in what condition he has been placed by the daily receipt 
of such advantages. If a negro slave wants new shoes, he asks 
for them, and receives them, with the undoubting simplicity of 
a child. Such a state of things has its picturesquely patriarch- 
al side ; but what Avould be the state of such a man if he were 
emancipated to-morrow ? 

The natural beauty of the place which I was visiting was 
very great. The trees were fine and well-scattered over the 
large, park-like pastures, and the ground was broken on every 
side into hills. There was perhaps too much timber, but my 
friend seemed to think that that fault would find a natural rem- 
edy only too quickly. "I do not like to cut down trees if I 
can help it," he said. After that I need not say that my host 
was quite as much an Englishman as an American. To the 
purely American farmer a tree is simply an enemy to be trod- 



WASHINGTON TO ST. LOUIS. 377 

den under foot, and buried underground, or reduced to ashes 
and thrown to the winds with what most economical despatch 
may be possible. If water had been added to the landscape 
here it would have been perfect, regarding it as ordinary En- 
glish park-scenery. But the little rivers at. this place have a 
dirty trick of burying themselves under the ground. They 
go down suddenly into holes, disappearing from the upper air, 
and then come up again at the distance of perhaps half a mile. 
Unfortunately their periods of seclusion are more prolonged 
than those of their upper-air distance. There were three or four 
such ascents and descents about the place. 

My host was a breeder of race-horses, and had imported 
sires from England ; of sheep also, and had imported famous 
rams ; of cattle too, and was great in bulls. He was very loud 
in praise of Kentucky and its attractions, if only this war could 
be brought to an end. But I could not obtain from him an as- 
surance that the speculation in which he w^as engaged had been 
profitable. Ornamental farming in England is a very pretty 
amusement for a wealthy man, but I fancy, — without intending 
any slight on Mr. Mechi, — that the amusement is expensive. 
I believe that the same thing may be said of it in a slave State. 

Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky, and is as quietly dull a 
little town as I ever entered. It is on the river Kentucky, and 
as the grounds about it on every side rise in wooded hills, it 
is a very pretty place. In January it was very pretty, but in 
summer it must be lovely. I was taken up to the cemetery 
there by a path along the river, and am inclined to say that it 
is the sweetest resting-place for the dead that I have ever vis- 
ited. Daniel Boone lies there. He was the first white man 
who settled in Kentucky ; or rather, perhaps, the first who en- 
tered Kentucky with a view to a white man's settlement. 
Such frontier men as was Daniel Boone never remained long 
contented with the spots they opened. As soon as he had left 
his mark in that territory he went again further west over the 
big rivers into Missouri, and there he died. But the men of 
Kentucky are proud of Daniel Boone, and so they have buried 
him in the loveliest spot they could select, immediately over 
the river, Frankfort is worth a visit, if only that this grave 
and graveyard may be seen. The legislature of the State was 
not sitting when I was there, and the grass was growing in 
the streets. 

Louisville is the commercial city of the State, and stands on 
the Ohio. It is another great town, like all the others, built 
with high stores, and great houses and stone-faced blocks. I 



378 NORTH AMERICA. 

have no doubt thnt all the building speculations have been fail- 
ures, and that the men engaged in them were all ruined. But 
there as the result of their labour, stands a fair great city on 
the southern banks of the Ohio. Here General Buell held his 
head-quarters, but his army lay at a distance. On my return 
from the West I visited one of the camps of this army, and 
will speak of it as I speak of my backward journey. I had al- 
ready at this time begun to conceive an opinion that the armies 
in Kentucky and in Missouri would do at any rate as much for 
the northern cause, as that of the Potomac of which so much 
more had been heard in England. 

While I was at Louisville the Ohio was flooded. It had be- 
gun to rise when I was at Cincinnati, and since then had gone 
on increasing hourly, rising inch by inch up into the towns 
upon its bank. I visited two suburbs of Louisville, both of 
which were submerged, as to the streets and ground-floors of 
the houses. At Shipping Port, one of these suburbs, I saw the 
women and children clustering in the up-stairs room, while the 
men were going about in punts and wherries, collecting drift 
wood from the river for their winter's firing. In some places 
bedding and furniture had been brought over to the high 
ground, and the women were sitting, guarding their little prop- 
erty. That village, amidst the waters, was a sad sight to see ; 
but I heard no complaints. There was no tearing of hair and 
no gnashing of teeth ; no bitter tears or moans of sorrow. 
The men who were not at work in the boats stood loafing 
about in clusters, looking at the still, rising river ; but each 
seemed to be personally indifferent to the matter. When the 
house of an American is- carried down the river, he builds him- 
self another ; — as he would get himself a new coat when his 
old coat became unserviceable. But he never laments or 
moans for such a loss. Surely there is no other people so pas- 
sive under personal misfortune ! 

Going from Louisville up to St. Louis, I crossed the Ohio 
river and passed through parts of Indiana and of Illinois, and 
striking the Mississippi opposite St. Louis, crossed that river 
also, and then entered the State of Missouri. The Ohio was, 
as I have said, flooded, and we went over it at night. The 
boat had been moored at some unaccustomed place. There 
was no light. The road was deep in mud up to the axle-tree, 
and was crowded with waggons and carts, which in the dark- 
ness of the night seemed to liave stuck there. B^t the man 
drove his four horses through it all, and into the ferry-boat, 
over its side. There were three or four such omnibuses, and 



MISSOURI. 379 

as many waggons, as to each of which I predicted in my own 
mind some fatal catastrophe. But they were all driven on to 
the boat in the dark, the horses mixing in through each other 
in a chaos which would have altogether incapacitated any En- 
ghsh coachman. And then the vessel laboured across the flood, 
going sideways, and hardly keeping her own against the stream. 
But we did get over, and were all driven out again, up to the 
railway station in safety. On reaching the Mississippi about 
the middle of the next day, we found it frozen over, or rather 
covered from side to side with blocks of ice which had forced 
its way down the river, so that the steam ferry could not reacli 
its proper landing. I do not think that we in England would 
have attempted the feat of carrying over horses and carriages 
mider stress of such circumstances. But it was done here. 
Huge plankings were laid down over the ice, and omnibuses 
and waggons were driven on. In getting out again, these ve- 
hicles, each with four horses, had to be twisted about, and 
driven in and across the vessel, and turned in spaces to look 
at which would have broken the heart of an English coachman. 
And then Avith a spring they were driven up a bank as steep 
as a ladder ! Ah me ! under what mistaken iUusions have I 
not laboured all the days of my youth, in supposing that no 
man could drive four horses well but an English stage-coach- 
man ? I have seen performances in America, — and in Italy 
and France also, but above all in America, which would have 
made the hair of any English professional driver stand on end. 
And in this way I entered St. Louis. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

mssouEi. 

Missouri is a slave State lying to the west of the Mississippi 
and to the north of Arkansas. It forms a portion of the territory 
ceded by France to the United States in 1803. Indeed, it is dif- 
ficult to say how large a portion of the continent of North Amer- 
ica is supposed to be included in that territory. It contains the 
States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas, as also the 
present Indian territory ; but it also is said to have contained all 
the land lying back from them to the Eocky Mountains, Utah, 
Nebraska, and Dacotah, and forms no doubt the widest dominion 
ever ceded by one nationality to another. 

Missouri lies exactly north of the old Missouri compromise line, 



380 NORTH AMERICA. 

that is, 36*30 north. When the Missouri compromise was made 
it was arranged that Missouri should be a slave State, but that no 
other State north of the 3G*30 line should ever become slave soil. 
Kentucky and Virginia, as also of course Maryland and Delaware, 
four of the old slave States, were already north of that line ; but 
the compromise was intended to prevent the advance of slavery in 
the north-west. The compromise has been since annulled, on the 
ground, I believe, that Congress had not constitutionally the power 
to declare that any soil should be free, or that any should be slave 
soil. That is a question to be decided by the States themselves, 
as each individual State may please. So the compromise was re- 
pealed. But slavery has not on that account advanced. The bat- 
tle has been fought in Kansas, and after a long and terrible strug- 
gle, Kansas has come out of the fight as a free State. Kansas is 
in the same parallel of latitude as Virginia, and stretches west as 
far as the Rocky Mountains. 

When the census of the population of Missouri was taken in 
1860, the slaves amounted to 10 per cent, of the whole number. 
In the Gulf States the slave population is about 45 per cent, of 
the whole. In the three border States of Kentucky, Virginia, and 
Maryland, the slaves amount to 30 per cent, of the whole popula- 
tion. From these figures it will be seen that Missouri, which is 
comparatively a new slave State, has not gone a-head with slavery 
as the old slave States have done, although from its position and 
climate, lying as far south as Virginia, it might seem to have had 
the same reasons for doing so. I think there is every reason to 
believe that slavery will die out in Missouri. The institution is 
not popular with the people generally ; and as white labour be- 
comes abundant — and before the war it was becoming abundant 
— men recognize the fact that the white man's labour is the more 
profitable. The heat in this State, in midsummer, is very great, 
especially in the valleys of the rivers. At St. Louis, on the Mis- 
sissippi, it reaches commonly to 90, and very frequently goes above 
that. The nights moreover are nearly as hot as the days; but 
this great heat does not last for any very long period, and it seems 
that white men are able to work throughout the year. If corre- 
spondingly severe weather in winter affords any compensation to 
the white man for what of heat he endures during the summer, I 
can testify that such compensation is to be found in Missouri. 
When I was there we were afflicted with a combination of snow, 
sleet, frost, and wind, with a mixture of ice and mud, that makes 
me regard Missouri as the most inclement land into which I ever 
penetrated. 



jnssouRi. 381 

St. Louis, on the Mississippi, is the great town of Missouri, and 
is considered by the Missourians to be the star of the West. It is 
not to be beaten in population, wealth, or natural advantages by 
any other city so far west ; but it has not increased with such 
rapidity as Chicago, which is considerably to the north of it on 
Lake Michigan. Of the great western cities I regard Chicago as 
the most remarkable, seeing that St. Louis was a large town be- 
fore Chicago had been founded. 

The population of St. Louis is 170,000. Of this number only 
2000 are slaves. I was told that a large proportion of the slaves 
of Missouri are employed near the Missouri river in breaking hemp. 
The growth of hemp is very profitably carried on in that valley, 
and the labour attached to it is one which white men do not like 
to encounter. Slaves are not generally employed in St. Louis for 
domestic service, as is done almost universally in the towns of 
Kentucky. This work is chiefly in the hands of Irish and Ger- 
mans. Considerably above one-third of the population of the 
whole city is made up of these two nationalities. So much is con- 
fessed ; but if I were to form an opinion from the language I heard 
in the streets of the town, 1 should say that nearly every man was 
either an Irishman or a German. 

St. Louis has none of the aspects of a slave city. I cannot say 
that I found it an attractive place, but then I did not visit it at an 
attractive time. The war had disturbed everything, given a special 
colour of its own to men's thoughts and words, and destroyed all 
interest except that which might proceed from itself The town 
is well built, with good shops, straight streets, never-ending rows 
of excellent houses, and every sign of commercial wealth and do- 
mestic comfort, — of commercial wealth and domestic comfort in 
the past, for there was no present appearance either of comfort or 
of wealth. The new hotel here was to be bigger than all the ho- 
tels of all other towns. It is built, and is an enormous pile, and 
would be handsome but for a terribly ambitious Grecian doorway. 
It is built, as far as the walls and roof are concerned, but in all 
other respects is unfinished. I was told that the shares of the 
original stockholders were now worth nothing. A shareholder, 
who so told me, seemed to regard this as the ordinary course of 
business. 

The great glory of the town is the "levee," as it is called, or 
the long river beach up to which the steamers are brought with 
their bows to the shore. It is an esplanade looking on to the 
viver, not built with quays or wharves, as would be the case with 
us, but with a sloping bank running down to the water. In the 



382 NORTH AMERICA. 

good daj^s of peace a hundred vessels were to be seen here, each 
with its double fLinnels. The line of them seemed to be never 
endin*- even when I was there, but then a very large proportion 
of them were lying idle. They resemble huge wooden houses, 
apparently of frail architecture, floating upon the water. Each 
has its double row of balconies running round it, and the lower or 
ground floor is open throughout. The upper stories are propped 
and supported on ugly sticks and ricketty-looking beams ; so that 
the first appearance does not convey any great idea of security to 
a stranger. They are always painted white and the paint is al- 
ways very dirty. Wlien they begin to move, they moan and groan 
in melancholy tones which are subversive of all comfort ; and as 
they continue on their courses they puff and bluster, and are for 
ever threatening to burst and shatter themselves to pieces. There 
they lie in a continuous line nearly a mile in length along the levee 
of St. Louis, dirty, dingy, and now, alas, mute. They have ceased 
to groan and puff, and if this war be continued for six months 
longer, will become rotten and useless as they lie. 

They boast at St. Louis that they command 46,000 miles of 
navigable river water, counting the great rivers up and down from 
that place. These rivers are chiefly the Mississippi, the Missouri 
and Ohio which fall into the Mississippi near St. Louis, the Platte 
and Kansas rivers — tributaries of the Missouri, the Illinois, and 
the Wisconsin. All these are open to steamers, and all of them 
traverse regions rich in corn, in coal, in metals, or in timber. 
These ready-made highways of the world centre, as it were, at St. 
Louis, and make it the depot of the carrying trade of all that vast 
country. Minnesota is 1500 miles above New Orleans, but the 
wheat of Minnesota can be brought down the whole distance with- 
out change of the vessel in which it is first deposited. It would 
seem to be impossible that a country so blessed should not become 
rich. It must be remembered that these rivers flow through lands 
that have never yet been surpassed in natural fertility. Of all 
countries in the world one would say that the States of America 
should have been the last to curse themselves with a war; but 
now the curse has fallen upon them with a double vengeance. It 
would seem that they could never be great in war: their very in- 
stitutions forbid it ; their enormous distances forbid it ; the price 
of labour forbids it ; and it is forbidden also by the career of in- 
dustry and expansion which has been given to them. But the 
curse of fighting has come upon them, and they are showing them- 
selves to be as eager in the works of war as they have shown 
themselves capable in the works of peace. Men and aiij:els must 



>nssouRi. 383 

weep as they behold the things that are being done, as they watch 
the ruin that has come and is still coming, as they look on com- 
merce killed and agriculture suspended. No sight so sad has come 
upon the earth in our days. They were a great people ; feeding 
the world, adding daily to the mechanical appliances of mankind, 
increasing in population beyond all measures of such increase hith- 
erto known, and extending education as fast as they extended their 
numbers. Poverty had as yet found no place among them, and 
hunger was an evil of which they had read, but were themselves 
ignorant. Each man among their crowds had a right to be proud 
of his manhood. To read and write, — I am speaking here of the 
North, — was as common as to eat and drink. To work was no 
disgrace, and the wages of work were plentiful. To live without 
work was the lot of none. What blessing above these blessings 
was needed to make a people great and happy? And now a 
stranger visiting them would declare that they are wallowing in a 
.very slough of despond. The only trade open is the trade of war. 
The axe of the woodsman is at rest ; the plough is idle ; the artifi- 
cer has closed his shop. The roar of the foundry is still heard be- 
cause cannon are needed, and the river of molten iron comes out 
as an implement of death. The stone-cutter's hammer and the 
mason's trowel are never heard. The gold of the country is hid- 
ing itself as though it had returned to its mother earth, and the 
infancy of a paper currency has been commenced. Sick soldiers, 
who have never seen a battle-field, are dying by hundreds in the 
squalid dirt of their unaccustomed camps. Men and women talk 
of war, and of war only. Newspapers full of the war are alone 
read. A contract for war stores — too often a dishonest contract 
— is the one path open for commercial enterprise. The young 
man must go to the war or he is disgraced. The war swallows 
everything, and as yet has failed to produce even such bitter fruits 
as victory or glory. Must it not be said that a curse has fallen 
upon the land '? 

And yet I still hope that it may ultimately be for good. 
Through water and lire must a nation be cleansed of its faults. 
It has been so with all nations, though the phases of their trials 
have been different. It did not seem to be well with us in Crom- 
well's early days ; nor was it well with us afterwards in those dis- 
graceful years of the later Stuarts. We know how France was 
bathed in blood in her effort to rid herself of her painted sepulchre 
of an ancient throne ; how Germany was made desolate, in order 
that Prussia might become a nation. Ireland was poor and wretch- 
ed, till her famine came. Men said it was a curse, but that curse 



384 NORTtI AMERICA. 

has been her greatest blessing. And so will it be here in the West. 
I could not but weep in spirit as I saw the wretchedness around 
me, — the squalid misery of the soldiers, the inefficiency of their 
officers, the bickerings of their rulers, the noise and threats, the 
dirt and ruin, the terrible dishonesty of those who were trusted \ 
These are things which made a man wish that he were any- 
where but there. But I do believe that God is still over all, and 
that everything is working for good. These things are the fire 
and water through which this nation must pass. The course of 
this people had been too straight, and their ways had been too 
pleasant. That which to others had been ever difficult had been 
made easy for them. Bread and meat had come to them as things 
of course, and they hardly remembered to be thankful. "We 
ourselves have done it," they declared aloud. "We are not as 
other men. We are gods upon the earth. Whose arm shall be 
long enough to stay us, or whose bolt shall be strong enough to 
strike us?" 

Now they are stricken sore, and the bolt is from their own 
bow. Their own hands have raised the barrier that has stayed 
them. They have stumbled in their running, and are lying hurt 
upon the ground ; while they who have heard their boastings turn 
upon them with ridicule, and laugh at them in their discomfiture.^. 
They are rolling in the mire, and cannot take the hand of any man 
to help them. Though the hand of the bystander may be stretch- 
ed to them, his face is scornful and his voice full of reproaches. 
Who has not known that hour of misery when in the sullenness 
of the heart all help has been refused, and misfortune has been 
made welcome to do her worst"? So is it now with those once 
United States. The man who can see without inward tears the 
self-infficted wounds of that American people can hardly have 
within his bosom the tenderness of an Englishman's heart. 

But the strong runner will rise again to his feet, even though 
he be stunned by his fall. He will rise again, and will have 
learned something by his sorrow. His anger will pass away, and 
he will again brace himself for his work. What great race has 
ever been won by any man, or by any nation, without some such 
fall during its course ? Have we not all declared that some check 
to that career was necessary ? Men in their pursuit of intelligence 
had forgotten to be honest ; in struggling for greatness they had 
discarded purity. The nation has been great, but the statesmen 
of the nation have been little. Men have hardly been ambitious 
to govern, but they have caveted the wages of governors. Cor- 
ruption has crept into high places, — into places that should have 



MISSOURI. 385 

been high, — till of all holes and corners in the land they have be- 
come the lowest. No public man has been trusted for ordinary 
honesty. It is not by foreign voices, by English newspapers or in 
French pamphlets, that the corruption of American politicians has 
been exposed, but by American voices and by the American press. 
It is to be heard on every side. Ministers of the cabinet, senators, 
representatives. State legislatures, officers of the army, officials of 
the navy, contractors of every grade, — all who are presumed to 
touch, or to have the power of touching public money, are thus ac- 
cused. For years it has been so. The word politician has stunk 
in men's nostrils. When I first visited New York, some three 
years since, I was warned not to know a man, because he was a 
" politician." We in England define a man of a certain class as 
a black-leg. How has it come about that in American ears the 
word politician has come to bear a similar signification ? 

The material growth of the States has been so quick, that the 
political growth has not been able to keep pace with it. In com- 
merce, in education, in all municipal arrangements, in mechanical 
skill, and also in professional ability, the country has stalked on 
with amazing rapidity ; but in the art of governing, in all political 
management and detail, it has made no advance. The merchants 
of our country and of that countiy have for many years met on 
terms of perfect equality, but it has never been so with their states- 
men and our statesmen, with their diplomatists and our diplomat- 
ists. Lombard Street and Wall Street can do business with each 
other on equal footing, but it is not so between Downing Street 
and the State-office at Washington. The science of statesmanship 
has yet to be learned in the States, — and certainly the highest les- 
son of that science, which teaches that honesty is the best policy. 

I trust that the war will have left such a lesson behind it. If 
it do so, let the cost in money be what it may, that money will not 
have been wasted. If the American people can learn the neces- 
sity of employing their best men for their highest work, — if they 
can recognize these honest men and trust them when they are so 
recognized, — then they may become as great in politics as they 
have become great in commerce and in social institutions. 

St. Louis, and indeed the whole State of Missouri, was at the 
time of my visit under martial law. General Halleck was in com- 
mand, holding his head-quarters at St. Louis, and carrying out, at 
any rate as far as the city was concerned, what orders he chose to 
issue. I am disposed to think that, situated as Missouri then was, 
martial law was the best law. No other law could have had force 
in a town surrounded by soldiers, and in which half of the inhab- 

R 



386 NORTH AMERICA. 

itants were loyal to the existing Government, and half of them 
were in favour of rebellion. The necessity for such power is ter- 
rible, and the power itself in the hands of one man must be full of 
danger ; but even that is better than anarchy. I will not accuse 
General Halleck of abusing his power, seeing that it is hard to de- 
termine what is the abuse of such power and what its proper use. 
When we were at St. Louis a tax was being gathered of 100/. a 
head from certain men presumed to be secessionists, and as the 
money was not of course very readily paid, the furniture of these 
suspected secessionists was being sold by auction. No doubt such 
a measure was by them regarded as a great abuse. One gentle- 
man informed me that, in addition to this, certain houses of his 
had been taken by the Government at a fixed rent, and that the 
payment of the rent was now refused unless he would take the 
oath of allegiance. He no doubt thought that an abuse of power ! 
But the worst abuse of such power comes not at first, but with 
long usage. 

Up to the time however at which I was at St. Louis, martial 
law had chiefly been used in closing grog-shops and administering 
the oath of allegiance to suspected secessionists. Something also 
had been done in the way of raising money by selling the property 
of convicted secessionists ; and while I was there eight men were 
condemned to be shot for destroying railway bridges. " But will 
they be shot ?" I asked of one of the officers. *' Oh, yes. It will 
be done quietly, and no one will know anything about it. We 
shall get used to that kind of thing presently." And the inhabit- 
ants of Missouri were becoming used to martial law. It is sur- 
prising how quickly a people can reconcile themselves to altered 
circumstances, when the change comes upon them without the 
necessity of any expressed opinion on their own part. Personal 
freedom has been considered as necessary to the American of the 
States as the air he breathes. Had any suggestion been made to 
him of the suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus, of a cen- 
sorship of tlie press, or of martial law, the American would have 
declared his willingness to die on the floor of the House of Kepre- 
sentatives, and have proclaimed with ten million voices his inabil- 
ity to live under circumstances so subversive of his rights as a 
man. And he would have thoroughly believed the truth of his 
own assertions. Had a chance been given of an argument on the 
matter, of stump speeches, and caucus meetings, these things could 
never have been done. But as it is, Americans are, I think, rather 
proud of tlie suspension of the habeas corpus. They point with 
gratification to the uniformly loyal tone of the newspapers, re- 



MISSOURI. 387 

marking that any editor who should dare to give even a secession 
squeak, would immediately find himself shut up. And now noth- 
ing but good is spoken of martial law. I thought it a nuisance 
when I was prevented by soldiers from trotting my horse down 
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, but I was assured by Amer- 
icans that such restrictions were very serviceable in a community. 
At St. Louis martial law was quite popular. Why should not 
General Halleck be as well able to say what was good for the 
people as any law or any lawyer ? He had no interest in the in- 
jury of the State, but every interest in its preservation. "But 
what," I asked, " would be the effect were he to tell you to put 
out all your fires at eight o'clock ?" " If he were so to order, we 
should do it; but we know that he will not." But who does 
know to what General Halleck or other generals may come ; or 
how soon a curfew-bell may be ringing in American towns? The 
winning of liberty is long and tedious, but the losing it is a down- 
hill easy journey. 

It was here, in St. Louis, that General Fremont had held his 
military court. He was a great man here during those hundred 
days through which his command lasted. He lived in a great 
house, had a body-guard, was inaccessible as a great man should 
be, and fared sumptuously every day. He fortified the city, — or 
rather, he began to do so. He constructed barracks here, and in- 
stituted military prisons. The fortifications have been discontin- 
ued as useless, but the barracks and the prisons remain. In the 
latter there were 1200 secessionist soldiers who had been taken 
in the State of Missouri. "Why are tliey not exchanged?" I 
asked. "Because they are not exactly soldiers," I was informed. 
"The secessionists do not acknowledge them." "Then would it 
not be cheaper to let them go '?" " No," said my informant ; " be- 
cause in that case we should have to catch them again." And so 
the 1200 remain in their wretched prison, — thinned from week to 
week and from day to day by prison disease and prison death. 

I went out twice to Benton barracks, as the camp of wooden 
huts was called, which General Fremont had erected near the fair- 
ground of the city. This fair-ground, I was told, had been a pleas- 
ant place. It had been constructed for the recreation of the city, 
and for the purpose of periodical agricultural exhibitions. There 
is still in it a pretty ornamented cottage, and in the little garden 
a solitary Cupid stood dismayed by the dirt and ruin around him. 
In the fair-green are the round buildings intended for show cattle 
and agricultural implements, but now given up to cavalry horses 
and Parrott guns. But Benton barracks are outside the fair- 



388 NOKTH AMERICA. 

green. Here on an open space, some half-mile in length, two long 
rows of wooden sheds have been built, opposite to each other, and 
behind them are other sheds used for stabling and cooking-places. 
Those in front are divided, not into separate huts, but into cham- 
bers capable of containing nearly two hundred men each. They 
were surrounded on the inside by great wooden trays, in three 
tiers, — and on each tray four men were supposed to sleep. I went 
into one or two while the crowd of soldiers was in them, but found 
it inexpedient to stay there long. The stench of those places was 
foul beyond description. Never in my life before had I been in a 
place so horrid to the eyes and nose as Benton barracks. The 
path along the front outside was deep in mud. The whole space 
between the two rows of sheds was one field of mud, so slippery 
that the foot could not stand. Inside and outside every spot was 
deep in mud. The soldiers were mud-stained from foot to sole. 
These volunteer soldiers are in their nature dirty, as must be all 
men brought together in numerous bodies without special appli- 
ances for cleanliness, or control and discipline as to their personal 
habits. But the dirt of the men in the Benton barracks surpassed 
any dirt that I had hitherto seen. "Nor could it have been other- 
wise with them. They were surrounded by a sea of mud, and the 
foul hovels in which they were made to sleep and live were fetid 
with stench and reeking with filth. I had at this time been join- 
ed by another Englishman, and we went through this place to- 
gether. When we inquired as to the health of the men, we heard 
the saddest tales, — of three hundred men gone out of one regiment, 
of whole companies that had perished, of hospitals crowded with 
fevered patients. Measles had been the great scourge of the sol- 
diers here — as it had also been in the army of the Potomac. I 
:shall not soon forget my visits to Benton barracks. It may be 
that our own soldiers were as badly treated in the Crimea ; or that 
French soldiers were treated worse on their march into Russia. 
It may be that dirt and wretchedness, disease and listless idleness, 
a descent from manhood to habits lower than those of the beasts, 
are necessary in warfare. I have sometimes thought that it is so ; 
but I am no military critic and will not say. This I say, — that 
the degradation of men to the state in which I saw the American 
soldiers in Benton barracks, is disgraceful to humanity. 

General Halleck was at this time commanding in Missouri, and 
was himself stationed at St. Louis ; but his active measures against 
the rebels were going on to the right and to the left. On the left 
shore of the Mississippi, at Cairo, in Illinois, a fleet of gun-boats 
was being prepared to go down the river, and on the right an army 



MISSOURI. 389 

was advancing against Springfield, in the south-western district of 
Missouri, with the object of dislodging Price, the rebel guerilla lead- 
er there, and, if possible, of catching him. Price had been the op- 
ponent of poor General Lyon who was killed at Wilson's Creek, 
near Springfield, and of General Fremont, who during his hundred 
days had failed to drive him out of the State. This duty had now 
been intrusted to General Curtis, who had for some time been 
holding his head-quarters at Rolla, halfway between St. Louis and 
Springfield. Fremont had built a fort at Rolla, and it had become 
a military station. Over 10,000 men had been there at one time, 
and now General Curtis was to advance from Rolla against Price 
with something above that number of men. Many of them, how- 
ever, had already gone on, and others were daily being sent up from 
St. Louis. Under these circumstances my friend and I, fortified 
with a letter of introduction to General Curtis, resolved to go and 
see the army at Rolla. 

On our way down by the railway we encountered a young Ger- 
man officer, an aide-de-camp of the Federals, and under his au- 
spices we saw Rolla to advantage. Our companions in the railway 
were chiefly soldiers and teamsters. The car was crowded and 
filled with tobacco smoke, apple peel, and foul air. In these cars 
during the winter there is always a large lighted stove^ a stove^ 
that might cook all the dinners for a French hotel, and no window 
is ever opened. Among our fellow-travellers there was here and 
there a west-country Missouri farmer going down, under the pro- 
tection of the advancing army, to look after the remains of his 
chattels. — wild, dark, uncouth, savage-looking men. One such 
hero I specially remember, as to whom the only natural remark 
would be that one would not like to meet him alone on a dark 
night. He was burly and big, unwashed and rough, with a black 
beard, shorn some two months since. He had sharp, angry eyes, 
and sat silent, picking his teeth with a bowie knife. I met him 
afterwards at the Rolla hotel, and found that he was a gentleman 
of property near Springfield. He was mild and meek as a sucking 
dove, asked my advice as to the state of his affairs, and merely 
guessed that things had been pretty rough with him. Things had 
been pretty rough with him. The rebels had come upon his land. 
House, fences, stock, and crop were all gone. His homestead had 
been made a ruin, and his farm had been turned into a wilderness. 
Everything was gone. He had carried his wife and children off" 
to Illinois, and had now returned, hoping that he might get on in 
the wake of the army till he could see the debris of his property. 
But even he did not seem disturbed. He did not bemoan himself 



390 NORTH AMERICA. 

or curse his fate. ^' Things were pretty rough,*' he said ; and that 
was all he did say. 

It was dark when we got into Rolla. Everything had been cov- 
ered with snow, and everywhere the snow was frozen. We had 
heard that there was an hotel, and that possibly we might get a 
bedroom there. We were first taken to a wooden building, which 
we were told was the head-quarters of the army, and in one room 
we found a colonel with a lot of soldiers loafing about, and in an- 
other a provost-marshal attended by a newspaper correspondent. 
We were received with open arms, and a suggestion was at once 
made that we were no doubt picking up news for European news- 
papers. " Air you a son of the Mrs. Trollope f said the corre- 
spondent. ''Then, sir, you are an accession to Rolla." Upon 
which I was made to sit down, and invited to "loaf about" at the 
head-quarters as long as I might remain at Rolla. Shortly, how- 
ever, there came on a violent discussion about waggons. A gen- 
eral had come in and wanted all the colonel's waggons, but the 
colonel swore that he had none, declared how bitterly he was im- 
peded with sick men, and became indignant and reproachful. It 
was Brutus and Cassius again; and as we felt ourselves in the 
way, and anxious moreover to ascertain what might be the nature 
of the Rolla hotel, we took up our heavy portmanteaux — for they 
were heavy — and with a guide to show us the way, started off 
through the dark and over the hill up to our inn. I shall never 
forget that walk. It was up hill and down hill, with an occasion- 
al half-frozen stream across it. My friend was impeded with an 
enormous cloak lined with fur, which in itself was a burden for a 
coalheaver. Our guide, who was a clerk out of the colonel's of- 
fice, carried an umbrella and a small dressing-bag, but we ourselves 
manfully shouldered our portmanteaux. Sydney Smith declared 
that an Englishman only wasted his time in training himself for 
gymnastic aptitudes, seeing that for a shilling he could always hire 
a porter. Had Sydney Smith ever been at Rolla he would have 
written differently. I could tell at great length how I fell on my 
face in the icy snow, how my friend stuck in the frozen mud when 
he essayed to jump the stream, and how our guide walked on easily 
in advance, encouraging us with his voice from a distance. Why 
is it that a stout Englishman bordering on fifty finds himself in 
such a predicament as that ? No Frenchman, no Italian, no Ger- 
man, would so place himself, unless under the stress of insurmount- 
able circumstances. No American would do so under any circum- 
stances. As I slipped about on the ice and groaned with that ter- 
rible fardel on ray back, burdened with a dozen shirts, and a suit 



MISSOURI. 391 

of dress clothes, and three pair of boots, and four or five thick vol- 
umes, and a set of maps, and a box of cigars, and a washing-tub, I 
confessed to myself that I was a fool. Wiiat was I doing in such 
a galley as that? Why had I brought all that useless lumber down 
to Rolla ? Why had I come to Rolla, with no certain hope even 
of shelter for a night? But we did reach the hotel ; we did get a 
room between us with two bedsteads. And, pondering over the 
matter in my mind, since that evening, I have been inclined to 
think that the stout Englishman is in the right of it. No Ameri- 
can of my age and weight will ever go through what I went through 
then ; but I am not sure that he does not in his accustomed career 
go through worse things even than that. However, if I go to Rolla 
again during the war, I will at any rate leave the books behind 
me. 

What a night we spent in that inn ! They who know America 
will be aware that in all hotels there is a free admixture of diiffer- 
ent classes- The traveller in Europe may sit down to dinner with 
his tailor and shoemaker; but if so, his tailor and shoemaker have 
dressed themselves as he dresses, and are prepared to carry them- 
selves according to a certain standard, which in exterior does not 
differ from his own. In the large Eastern cities of the States, such 
as Boston, New York, and Washington, a similar practice of life 
is gradually becoming prevalent. There are various hotels for va- 
rious classes, and the ordinary traveller does not find himself at the 
same table with a butcher fresh from the shambles. But in the 
West there are no distinctions whatever. i'A man's a man for 
a' that" in the West, let the "a that" comprise what it may of 
coarse attire and unsophisticated manners. One soon gets used to 
it. In that inn at Rolla was a public room, heated in the middle 
by a stove, and round that we soon found ourselves seated in a 
company of soldiers, farmers, labourers, and teamsters. But there 
was among them a general ; not a fighting, or would-be fighting 
general of the present time, but one of the old-fashioned local gen- 
erals, — men who held, or had once held, some fabulous generalship 
in the State militia. There we sat, cheek by jowl with our new 
friends, till nearly twelve o'clock, talking politics and discussing the 
war. The General was a stanch Unionist, having, according to 
his own showing, suffered dreadful things from secessionist perse- 
cutors since the rebellion commenced. As a matter of course 
everybody present was for the Union. In such a place one rarely 
encounters any difference of opinion. The General was very eager 
about the war, advocating the immediate abolition of slavery, not 
as a means of improving the condition of the Southern slaves, but 



392 NORTH AMERICA. 

on the ground that it would ruin the southern masters. We all 
sat by, edging in a word now and then, but the General was the 
talker of the evening. He was very wrathy, and swore at every 
other word. " It was pretty well time," he said, " to crush out this 
rebellion, and by it must and should be crushed out ; Gener- 
al Jim Lane was the man to do it, and by General Jim Lane 

would do it !" and so on. In all such conversations the time for 
action has always just come, and also the expected man. But the 
time passes by as other weeks and months have passed before it, 
and the new General is found to be no more successful than his 
brethren. Our friend was very angry against England. "When 
we've polished off these accursed rebels, I guess we'll take a turn 
at you. You had your turn when you made us give up Mason and 
Slidell, and we'll have our turn by-and-by." J3ut in spite of his 
dislike to our nation he invited us warmly to come and see him at 
his home on the Missouri river. It was, according to his showing, 
a new Eden, — a Paradise upon earth. He seemed to think that 
we might perhaps desire to buy a location, and explained to us how 
readily we could make our fortunes. But he admitted in the 
course of his eulo iums that it would be as much as his life was 
worth for him to ride out five miles from his own house. In the 
meantime the teamsters greased their boots, the soldiers snored, 
those who were wet took off their shoes and stockings, hanging 
them to dry round the stove, and the western farmers chewed to- 
bacco in silence and ruminated. At such a house all the guests go 
in to their meals together. A gong is sounded on a sudden, close 
behind your ears ; accustomed as you may probably be to the sound 
you jump up from your chair in the agony of the crash, and by the 
time that you have collected your thoughts the whole crowd is off 
in a general stampede into the eating room. You may as well join 
them ; if you hesitate as to feeding with so rough a lot of men, you 
will have to sit down afterwards with the women and children of 
the family, and your lot will then be worse. Among such classes 
in the western States the men are always better than the women. 
The men are dirty and civil, the women are dirty and uncivil. 

On the following day we visited the camp, going out in an am- 
bulance and returning on horseback. We were accompanied by 
the General's aide-de-camp, and also, to our great gratification, by 
the General's daughter. There had been a hard frost for some 
nights, but though the cold was very great there was always heat 
enough in the middle of the day to turn the surface of the ground 
into glutinous mud ; consequently we had all the roughness in- 
duced by frost, but none of the usually attendant cleanliness. In- 



mssouKi. 393 

deed, it seemed that in these parts nothing was so dirty as frost. 
The mud stuck like paste and encompassed everything. We 
heard that morning that from sixty to seventy baggage-waggons 
had " broken through," as they called it, and stuck fast near a 
river in their endeavour to make their way on to Lebanon. We 
encountered two generals of brigade. General Siegel, a German, 
and General Ashboth, an Hungarian, both of whom were waiting 
till the weather should allow them to advance. They were ex- 
tremely courteous, and warmly invited us to go on with them to 
Lebanon and Springfield, promising to us such accommodation as 
they might be able to obtain for themselves. I was much tempt- 
ed to accept the offer ; but I found that day after day might pass 
before any forward movement was commenced, and that it might 
be weeks before Springfield or even Lebanon could be reached. 
It was my wish, moreover, to see what I could of the people, 
rather than to scrutinize the ways of the army. We dined at the 
tent of General Ashboth, and afterwards rode his horses through 
the camp back to Kolla. X was greatly taken with this Hungarian 
gentleman. He was a tall, thin, gaunt man of fifty, a pure-blooded 
Magyar as T was told, who had come from his own country with 
Kossuth to America. His camp circumstances were not very lux- 
urious, nor was his table very richly spread ; but he received us 
with the ease and courtesy of a gentleman. He showed us his 
sword, his rifle, his pistols, his chargers, and daguerreotype of a 
friend he had loved in his own country. They were all the treas- 
ures that he carried with him, — over and above a chess-board and 
a set of chessmen which sorely tempted me to accompany him in 
his march. 

In my next chapter, which will, I trust, be very short, I purport 
to say a few words as to what I saw of the American army, and 
therefore I will not now describe the regiments which we visited. 
The tents were all encompassed by snow, and the ground on which 
they stood was a bed of mud ; but yet the soldiers out here were 
not so wretchedly forlorn, or apparently so miserably uncomfort- 
able, as those at Benton barracks. I did not encounter that hor- 
rid sickly stench, nor were the men so pale and wobegone. On 
the following day we returned to St. Louis, bringing back with us 
our friend the German aide-de-camp. I stayed two days longer in 
that city, and then I thought that I had seen enough of Missouri ; 
— enough of Missouri at any rate under the present circumstances 
of frost and secession. As regards the people of the West, I 
must say that they were not such as I expected to find them. 
With the Northerns we are all more or less intimately ac- 

R 2 



394 NORTH AMERICA. 

quainted. Those Americans whom we meet in our own country, 
or on the Continent, are generally from the North, or if not so 
they have that type of American manners which has become fa- 
miliar to us. They are talkative, intelligent, inclined to be so- 
cial, though frequently not sympathetically social with ourselves ; 
somewhat soi-disant, but almost invariably companionable. As 
the traveller goes southward into Maryland and Washington, the 
type is not altered to any great extent. The hard intelligence of 
the Yankee gives place gradually to the softer, and perhaps more 
polished manner of the Southern. But the change thus experi- 
enced is not so great as is that between the American of the west- 
ern and the American of the Atlantic States. In the West I 
found the men gloomy and silent, — I might almost say sullen. A 
dozen of them will sit for hours round a stove, speechless. They 
chew tobacco and ruminate. They are not offended if you speak 
to them, but they are not pleased. They answer with monosylla- 
bles, or, if it be practicable, with a gesture of the head. They 
care nothing for the graces, — or shall I say, for the decencies of 
life ? They are essentially a dirty people. Dirt, untidiness, and 
noise, seem in nowise to afflict them. Things are constantly done 
before your eyes, which should be done and might be done behind 
your back. No doubt we daily come into the closest contact with 
matters which, if we saw all that appertains to them, would cause 
us to shake and shudder. In other countries we do not see all 
this, but in the western States we do. I have eaten in Bedouin 
tents, and have been ministered to by Turks and Arabs. I have 
sojourned in the hotels of old Spain and of Spanish America. I 
have lived in Connaught, and have taken up my quarters with 
monks of different nations. I have, as it were, been educated to 
dirt, and taken out my degree in outward abominations. But my 
education had not reached a point which would enable me to live 
at my ease in the western States. A man or woman who can do 
that may be said to have graduated in the highest honours, and to 
have become absolutely invulnerable, either through the sense of 
touch, or by the eye, or by the nose. Indifference to appearances 
is there a matter of pride. A foul shirt is a flag of triumph. A 
craving for soap and water is as the wail of the weak and the con- 
fession of cowardice. This indifference is carried into all their 
affairs, or rather this manifestation of indifference. A few pages 
back, I spoke of a man whose furniture had been sold to pay a 
heavy tax raised on him specially as a secessionist ; the same man 
had also been refused the payment of rent due to him by the Gov- 
ernment, unless he would take a false oath. I may presume that 



MISSOURI. 395 

he was ruined in his circumstances by the strong hand of the North- 
ern army. But he seemed in nowise to be unhappy about his ruin. 
He spoke with some scorn of the martial law in Missouri, but I 
felt that it was esteemed a small matter by him that his furniture 
was seized and sold. No men love money Avith more eager love 
than these western men, but they bear the loss of it as an Indian 
bears his torture at the stake. They are energetic in trade, spec- 
ulating deeply whenever speculation is possible ; but nevertheless 
they are slow in motion, loving to loaf about. They are slow in 
speech, preferring to sit in silence, with the tobacco between their 
teeth. They drink, but are seldom drunk to the eye ; they begin 
it early in the morning, and take it in a solemn, sullen, ugly man- 
ner, standing always at a bar ; swallowing their spirits, and say- 
ing nothing as they swallow it. They drink often, and to great 
excess ; but they carry it off without noise, sitting down and ru- 
minating over it with the everlasting cud within their jaws. I 
believe that a stranger might go into the West, and passing from 
hotel to hotel through a dozen of them, might sit for hours at each 
in the large everlasting public hall, and never have a word ad- 
dressed to him. No stranger should travel in the western States, 
or indeed in any of the States, without letters of introduction. It 
is the custom of the country, and they are easily procured. With- 
out them everything is barren ; for men do not travel in the States 
of America as they do in Europe, to see scenery and visit the 
marvels of old cities which are open to all the world. The social 
and political life of the Americans must constitute the interest of 
the traveller, and to these he can hardly make his way without 
introductions. 

I cannot part with the AVest without saying in its favour that 
there is a certain manliness about its men, which gives them a dig- 
nity of their own. It is shown in that very indifference of which 
I have spoken. Whatever turns up the man is still there, — still 
unsophisticated and still unbroken. It has seemed to me that no 
race of men requires less outward assistance than these pioneers 
of civilization. They rarely amuse themselves. Food, newspa- 
pers, and brandy-smashes suffice for life ; and while these last, 
whatever may occur, the man is still there in his manhood. The 
fur}^ of the mob does not shake him, nor the stern countenance of 
his present martial tyrant. Alas ! I cannot stick to my text by 
calling him a just man. Intelligence, energy, and endurance are 
his virtues. Dirt, dishonesty, and morning drinks are his vices. 

All native American women are intelligent. It seems to be 
their birthright. In the eastern cities they have, in their upper 



896 NORTH AMERICA. 

classes, superadded womanly grace to this intelligence, and conse- 
quently they are charming as companions. They are beautiful 
also, and, as I believe, lack nothing that a lover can desire in his 
love. But I cannot fancy myself much in love with a western 
lady, or rather with a lady in the West. They are as sharp as 
nails, but then they are also as hard. They know, doubtless, all 
that they ought to know, but then they know so much more than 
they ought to know. They are tyrants to their parents, and 
never practise the virtue of obedience till they have half-grown-up 
daughters of their own. They have faith in the destiny of their 
country, if in nothing else ; but they believe that that destiny is to 
be worked out by the spirit and talent of the young women. I 
confess that for me Eve would have had no charms had she not 
recognized Adam as her lord. I can forgive her in that she 
tempted him to eat the apple. Had she come from the West 
country she would have ordered him to make his meal, and then 
I could not have forgiven her. 

St. Louis should be, and still will be, a town of great wealth. 
To no city can have been given more means of riches. I have 
spoken of the enormous mileage of water-communication of which 
she is the centre. The country around her produces Indian corn, 
wheat, grasses, hemp, and tobacco. Coal is dug even within the 
boundaries of the city, and iron-mines are worked at a distance 
from it of a hundred miles. The iron is so pure, that it is broken 
off in solid blocks, almost free from alloy ; and as the metal stands 
up on the earth's surface in the guise almost of a gigantic metal 
pillar, instead of lying low within its bowels, it is worked at a 
cheap rate, and with great certainty. Nevertheless, at the present 
moment, the iron works of Pilot Knob, as the place is called, do 
not pay. As far as I could learn, nothing did pay, except govern- 
ment contracts. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD. 

To whatever period of life my days may be prolonged, I do 
not think that I shall ever forget Cairo. I do not mean Grand 
Cairo, which is also memorable in its way, and a place not to 
be forgotten, — but Cairo in the State of Illinois, which by na- 
tive Americans is always called Caaro. An idea is prevalent 
in the States, and I think I have heard the same broached in 
England, that a popular British author had Cairo, State of Illi- 
nois, in his eye when imder the name of Eden he depicted a 



CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD. 397 

chosen, happy spot on the Mississippi river, and told us how 
certain English emigrants fixed themselves in that locality, and 
there made hght of those little ills of life which are incident to 
humanity even in the garden of the valley of the Mississippi. 
But I doubt whether that author ever visited Cairo in mid- 
winter, and I am sure that he never visited Cairo when Cairo 
was the seat of an American army. Had he done so, his love 
of truth would have forbidden him to presume that even Mark 
Tapley could have enjoyed himself in such an Eden. 

I had no wish myself to go to Cairo, having heard it but in- 
diiferently spoken of by all men ; but my friend with whom I 
was travelling was peremptory in the matter. He had heard 
of gun-boats and mortar-boats, of forts built upon the river, of 
Columbiads, Dahlgrens, and Parrotts, of all the pomps and cir- 
cumstance of glorious war, and entertained an idea that Cairo 
was the nucleus or pivot of all really strategetic movements in 
this terrible national struggle. Under such circumstances I 
was as it were forced to go to Cairo, and bore myself, under 
the circumstances, as much like Mark Tapley as my nature 
would permit. I was not jolly while I was there certainly, but 
I did not absolutely break down and perish in its mud. 

Cairo is the southern terminus of the Illinois central railway. 
There is but one daily arrival there, namely, at half-past four in 
the morning, and but one despatch, which is at half-joast three 
in the morning. Everything is thus done to assist that view 
of life which Mark Tapley took when he resolved to ascertain 
under what possible worst circumstances of existence he could 
still maintain his jovial character. Why anybody should ever 
arrive at Cairo at half-past four a.m., I cannot understand. The 
departure at any hour is easy of comprehension. The place is 
situated exactly at the point at which the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi meet, and is, I should say, merely guessing on the matter, 
some ten or twelve feet lower than the winter level of the two 
rivers. This gives it naturally a depressed appearance, which 
must have much aided Mark Tapley in his endeavours. Who 
were the founders of Cairo I have never ascertained. They are 
probably buried fathoms deep in the mud, and their names will 
no doubt remain a mystery to the latest ages. They were 
brought thither, I presume, by the apparent water privileges of 
the place ; but the water privileges have been too much for 
them, and by the excess of their powers have succeeded in 
drowning all the capital of the early Cairovians, and in throw- 
ing a wet blanket of thick, moist, glutinous dirt over all their 
energies. 



398 NOKTII AMEEICA. 

The free State of Illinois runs down far south between the 
slave States of Kentucky to the east, and of Missouri to the 
west, and is the most southern point of the continuous free-soil 
territory of the Northern States. This point of it is a part of 
a district called Egypt, w^hich is fertile as the old country from 
whence it has borrowed a name ; but it suffers under those af- 
flictions which are common to all newly-settled lands which 
owe their fertility to the vicinity of great rivers. Fever and 
ague universally prevail. Men and Avomen grow up with their 
lantern faces like spectres. The children are prematurely old ; 
and the earth which is so fruitful is hideous in its fertility. 
Cairo and its immediate neighbourhood must, I suppose, have 
been subject to yearly inundation before it was " settled up." 
At present it is guarded on the shores of each river by high 
mud banks, built so as to protect the point of land. These are 
called the levees, and do perform their duty by keeping out the 
body of the waters. The shore between the banks is, I believe, 
never above breast deep with the inundation ; and from the cir- 
cumstances of the place, and the soft, half liquid nature of the 
soil, this inundation generally takes the shape of mud instead 
of water. 

Here, at the very point, has been built a town. Whether the 
town existed during Mr. Tapley's time I have not been able to 
learn. At the period of my visit, it was falhng quickly into 
ruin ; indeed I think I may pronounce it to have been on its 
last legs. At that moment a galvanic motion had been pumped 
into it by the war movements of General Halleck, but the true 
bearings of the town, as a town, were not less plainly to be read 
on that account. Every street was absolutely impassable from 
mud. I mean that in walking down the middle of any street 
in Cairo a moderately framed man would soon stick fast and 
not be able to move. The houses are generally built at con- 
siderable intervals and rarely face each other, and along one 
side of each street a plank boarding w\as laid, on which the mud 
had accumulated only up to one's ankles. I walked all over 
Cairo with big boots, and with my trousers tucked up to my 
knees ; but at the crossings I found considerable danger, and 
occasionally had my doubts as to the possibility of progress. I 
was alone in my w^ork, and saw no one else making any such 
attempt. A few only were moving about, and they moved in 
wretched carts, each drawn by two miserable, floundering 
horses. These carts were always empty, but were j^resumed 
to be engaged in some way on military service. No faces 
looked out at the windows of the houses, no forms stood in the 



I 



CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD. 399 

doorways. A few shops were open, but only in the drinkmg 
shops did I see customers. In these silent, muddy men were 
sitting, — not with drink before them, as men sit with us, — but 
with the cud within their jaws, ruminating. Their drinking is 
always done on foot. They stand silent at a bar, with two 
small glasses before them. Out of one they swallow the whisky, 
and from the other they take a gulp of water, as though to rinse 
their mouths. After that, they again sit down and ruminate. 
It was thus that men enjoyed themselves at Cairo. 

I cannot tell what was the existing joopulation of Cairo. I 
asked one resident ; but he only shook his head and said that 
the place was about " played out." And a miserably play it 
must have been. I tried to walk round the point on the levees, 
but I found that the mud w^as so deep and slippery on that 
which protected the town from the Mississippi, that I could 
not move on it. On the other, which forms the bank of the 
Ohio, the railway runs, and here was gathered all the life and 
movement of the place. But the life was galvanic in its nature, 
created by a war-galvanism of which the shocks were almost 
neutralized by mud. 

As Cairo is of all towns in America the most desolate, so is 
its hotel the most forlorn and wu'etched. Not that it lacked 
custom. It was so full that no room was to be had on our first 
entry from the railway cars at five a.m., and we were reduced 
to the necessity of washing our hands and faces in the public 
wash-room. When I entered it the barber and his assistants 
were asleejD there, and four or five citizens from the railway 
were busy at the basins. There is a fixed resolution in these 
places that you shall be drenched with dirt and drowned in 
abominations, which is overpowering to a mind less strong than 
Mark Tapley's. The filth is paraded and made to go as far as 
possible. The stranger is spared none of the elements of nasti- 
ness. I remember how an old woman once stood over me in 
my youth, forcing me to swallow the gritty dregs of her terri- 
ble medicine-cup. The treatment I received in the hotel at 
Cairo reminded me of that old woman. In that room I did not 
dare to brush my teeth lest I should give offence ; and I saw 
at once that I was regarded Avith suspicion when I used my own 
comb instead of that provided for the public. 

At length we got a room, one room for the two. I had be- 
come so depressed in spirits that I did not dare to object to this 
arrangement. My friend could not complain much, even to me, 
feeling that these miseries had been produced by his own ob- 
stinacy, " It is a new phase of life," he said. That, at any 



400 NORTH AMERICA. 

rate, was true. If nothing more be necessary for pleasurable 
excitement than a new phase of life, I would recommend all 
"who require pleasurable excitement to go to Cairo. They will 
certainly find a new phase of life. But do not let them remain 
too long, or they may find something beyond a new phase of life. 
Within a week of that time my friend was taking quinine, look- 
ing hollow about the eyes, and whispering to me of fever and 
ague. To say that there was nothing eatable or drinkable in 
that hotel, would be to tell that which will be understood with- 
out telling. My friend, however, was a cautious man, carrying 
with him comfortable tin pots, hermetically sealed, from Fort- 
num & Mason's ; and on the second day of our sojourn Ave were 
invited by two officers to join their dinner at a Cairo eating- 
house. We ploughed our way gallantly through the mud to a 
little shanty, at the door of which we were peremptorily de- 
manded by the landlord to scrub ourselves before we entered 
with the stump of an old broom. This we did, producing on 
our nether persons the appearance of bread which has been 
carefully spread with treacle by an economic housekeeper. 
And the proprietor was right, for had we not done so, the 
treacle would have run oif through the whole house. But after 
this we fared royally. Squirrel soup and prairie chickens re- 
galed us. One of our new friends had laden his pockets with 
champagne and brandy ; the other Avith glasses and a cork- 
screw ; and as the bottle Avent round, I began to feel some- 
thing of the spirit of Mark Tapley in my soul. 

But our visit to Cairo had been made rather Avith reference 
to its present Avarlike character, than Avith any eye to the nat- 
ural beauties of the place. A large force of men had been col- 
lected there, and also a fleet of gun-boats. We had come there 
fortified Avith letters to generals and commodores, and Avere 
prepared to go through a large amount of military inspection. 
But the bird had flown before our arrival ; or rather the body 
and wings of the bird, leaving behind only a draggled tail and 
a few of its feathers. There Avere only a thousand soldiers at 
Cairo Avhen we Avere there ; — that is, a thousand stationed in 
the Cairo sheds. Two regiments passed through the place 
during the time, getting out of one steamer on to another, or 
passing from the railway into boats. One of these regiments 
passed before me down the slope of the river-bank, and the 
men as a body seemed to be healthy. Very many Avere drunk, 
and all Avere mud-clogged up to their shoulders and very caps. 
In other respects they appeared to be in good order. It must 
be understood that these soldiers, the volunteers, had never 



CAIEO AND CAMP WOOD. 401 

been made subject to any discipline as to cleanliness. They 
wore their hair long. Their hats or caps, though all made in 
some military form and with some military appendance, were 
various and ill-assorted. They all were covered with loose, 
thick, blue-gray great-coats, which no doubt were warm and 
wholesome, but which from their looseness and colour seemed 
to be peculiarly susceptible of receiving and showing a very 
large amount of mud. Their boots were always good ; but each 
man was shod as he liked. Many wore heavy over-boots com- 
ing up at the leg ; — boots of excellent manufacture, and from 
their cost, if for no other reason, quite out of the reach of an 
English soldier ; boots in which a man would be not at all un- 
fortunate to find himself hunting ; but from these, or from their 
highlows, shoes, or whatever they might wear, the mud had 
never been even scraped. These men Avere all warmly clothed, 
but clothed apparently with an endeavour to contract as much 
mud as might be possible. 

The generals and commodores were gone up the Ohio river 
and up the Tennessee in an expedition with gun-boats, which 
turned out to be successful, and of which we have all read in 
the daily history of this war. They had departed the day be- 
fore our arrival, and though we still found at Cairo a squadron 
of gun-boats, — if gun-boats go in squadrons,* — the bulk of the 
army had been moved. There was left there one regiment and 
one colonel, who kindly described to us the battles he had fought, 
and gave us permission to see everything that was to be seen. 
Four of these gun-boats were still lying in the Ohio, close un- 
der the terminus of the railway, with their flat, ugly noses 
against the muddy bank, and we were shown over two of them. 
They certainly seemed to be formidable weapons for river war- 
fare, and to have been " got up quite irrespective of expense." 
So much, indeed, may be said for the Americans throughout 
the war. They cannot be accused of parsimony. The largest 
of these vessels, called the ' Benton,' had cost 36,000/. These 
boats are made with sides sloping inwards, at an angle of 45 
degrees. The iron is two-and-a-half inches thick, and it has not, 
I believe, been calculated that this will resist cannon shot of 
great weight, should it be struck in a direct line. But the an- 
gle of the sides of the boat makes it improbable that any such 
shot should strike them ; and the iron, bedded as it is upon oak, 
is supposed to be sufficient to turn a shot that does not hit it 
in a direct line. The boats are also roofed in with iron, and the 
pilots who steer the vessel stand encased, as it were, under an 
iron cupola. I imagine that these boats are well calculated for 



402 NORTH AMEEICA. 

the river service, for which they have been built. Six or seven 
of them had gone up the Tennessee river the clay before wc 
reached Cairo, and while we were there they succeeded in 
knocking down Fort Henry, and in carrying ofl'the soldiers sta- 
tioned there and the officer in command. One of the boats, 
liowever, had been penetrated by a shot which made its way 
into the boiler, and the men on deck, six, I think, in number, 
were scalded to death by the escaping steam. The two pilots 
up in the cupola were destroyed in this terrible manner. As 
they were altogether closed in by the iron roof and sides, there 
was no escape for the steam. The boats, however, were well 
made and A^ery powerfully armed, and will, probably, succeed 
in driving the secessionist armies away from the great river 
banks. By what machinery the secessionist armies are to be 
followed into the interior is altogether another question. 

But there was also another fleet at Cairo, and we were in- 
formed that w^e were just in time to see the first essay made at 
testing the utility of this armada. It consisted of no less than 
thirty-eight mortar-boats, each of which had cost 1700^. These 
mortar-boats were broad, flat-bottomed rafts, each constructed 
with a deck raised three feet above the bottom. They were 
protected by high iron sides, supposed to be proof against rifle 
balls, and when supplied had been furnished each Avith a little 
boat, a rope, and four rough sweeps or oars. They had no oth- 
er furniture or belongings, and were to be moved either by 
steam tugs or by the use of the long oars wltich were sent with 
them. It was intended that one 13-inch mortar, of enormous 
w^eight, should be put upon each, that these mortars should be 
fired with twenty-three pounds of powder, and that the shell 
thrown should, at a distance of three miles, fall with absolute 
precision into any devoted town which the rebels might hold 
on the river banks. The grandeur of the idea is almost sublime. 
So large an amount of powder had, I imagine, never then been 
used for the single charge in any instrument of war ; and when 
we were told that thirty-eight of them were to play at once on 
a city, and that they could be used with absolute precision, it 
seemed as though the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah could not 
be worse than the fate of that city. Could any city be safe 
when such implements of war were about upon the waters ? 

But when we came to inspect the mortar-boats, our misgiv- 
ings as to any future destination for this fleet were relieved, 
and our admiration was given to the smartness of the contract- 
or who had secured to himself the job of building them. In 
tlie first place they had all leaked till the spaces between the 



(JAIEO A^iD CAMP AVOOD. 403 

bottoms and the decks were filled Avith water. This space had 
been intended for ammunition, but now seemed hardly to be 
fitted for that purpose. The officer w^ho was about to test them 
by putting a mortar into one and by firing it ofi:' with twenty- 
three pounds of powder, had the water pumped out of a select- 
ed raft, and we were towed by a steam-tug from their moor- 
ings a mile up the river, down to the spot where the mortar 
lay ready to be lifted in by a derrick. But as we turned on the 
river, the tug-boat which had brought us down, was unable to 
hold us up against the force of the stream. A second tug-boat 
was at hand, and with one on each side Ave Avere just able, in 
half-an-hour, to recover the 100 yards Avhich we had lost down 
the river. The pressure against the stream Avas so great, oaa^- 
ing partly to the Aveight of the raft, and partly to the fact that 
its flat head buried itself in the Avater, that it Avas almost im- 
moveable against the stream, although the mortar Avas not yet 
on it. 

It soon became manifest that no trial could be made on that 
day, and so Ave Avere obliged to leave Cairo Avithout having 
witnessed the firing of the great gun. My belief is that very 
little evil to the enemy will result from those mortar-boats, and 
that they cannot be used Avith much effect. Since that time 
they have been used on the Mississippi, but as yet Ave do not 
knoAV A\dth Avhat result. Island No. 10 has been taken, but I 
do not knoAV that the mortar-boats contributed much to that 
success. The enormous cost of moving them against the stream 
of the river is in itself a barrier to their use. When we saw 
them — and then they Avere quite new — many of the rivets w^ere 
already gone. The small boats had been stolen from some of 
them, and the ropes and oars from others. There they lay, 
thirty-eight in number, up against the mud-banks of the Ohio, 
under the boughs of the half-clad, melancholy forest trees, as 
sad a spectacle of reckless prodigality as the eye ever beheld. 
But the contractor who made them no doubt Avas a smart man. 

This armada was moored on the Ohio against the Ioav^, reedy 
bank, a mile above the levee, A\diere the old unchanged forest 
of nature came doAvn to the very edge of the river, and mixed 
itself Avith the shalloAV overfloAving Avaters. I am Avrong in 
saying that it lay under the boughs of the trees, for such trees 
do not spread themselves out Avith broad branches. They stand 
thickly together, broken, stunted, spongy Avith rot, straight and 
ugly, Avith ragged tops and shattered arms, seemingly decayed, 
but still ever rencAving themselves with the rapid moist life of 
luxuriant forest vegetation. Nothing to my eyes is sadder than 



404 NORTH AMERICA. 

the monotonous desolation of such scenery. We, in England, 
when we read and speak of the primeval forests of America, 
are apt to form pictures in our minds of woodland glades, with 
spreading oaks and green mossy turf beneath, — of scenes than 
which nothing tliat God has given us is more charming. But 
these forests are not after that fashion ; they offer no allure- 
ment to the lover, no solace to the melancholy man of thought. 
The ground is deep with mud, or overflown with water. The 
soil and the river have no defined margins. Each tree, though 
full of the forms of life, has all the appearance of death. Even 
to the outward eye they seem to be laden with ague, fever, 
sudden chills, and pestilential malaria. 

When we first visited the si3ot we were alone, and we walk- 
ed across from the railway line to the place at which the boats 
were moored. They lay in treble rank along the shore, and 
immediately above them an old steam-boat was fastened against 
the bank. Her back was broken, and she was given up to ruin 
— placed there that she might rot quietly into her watery grave. 
It was mid-winter, and every tree was covered with frozen sleet 
and small particles of snow which had drizzled through the 
air ; for the snow had not fallen in hearty, honest flakes. The 
ground beneath our feet was crisp with frost, but traitorous in 
its crispness ; not frozen manfully so as to bear a man's weight, 
but ready at every point to let him through into the fat, gluti- 
nous mud below. I never saw a sadder picture, or one which 
did more to awaken pity for those whose fate had fixed their 
abodes in such a locality. And yet there was a beauty about 
it too, — a melancholy, death-like beauty. The disordered ruin 
and confused decay of the forest was all gemmed with parti- 
cles of ice. The eye reaching through the thin underwood 
could form for itself picturesque shapes and solitary bowers of 
broken wood, which were bright with the opaque brightness 
of the hoar-frost. The great river ran noiselessly along, rapid, 
but still with an apparent lethargy in its waters. The ground 
beneath our feet was fertile beyond compare, but as yet fertile 
to death rather than to life. Where we then trod man had 
not yet come with his axe and his plough ; but the railroad was 
close to us, and within a mile of the spot thousands of dollars 
had been spent in raising a city which was to have been rich 
with the united wealth of the rivers and the land. Hitherto 
fever and ague, mud and malaria, had been too strong for man, 
and the dollars had been spent in vain. The day, however, 
will come when this promontory between the two great rivers 
will be a fit abode for industry. Men will settle there, wander- 



CAIKO AND CAMP WOOD. 405 

ing down from the ISTorth and East, and toil sadly, and leave 
their bones among the mud. Thin, pale-faced, joyless mothers 
will come there, and grow old before their time ; and sickly 
children will be born, struggling up with wan faces to their sad 
life's labour. But the work will go on, for it is God's work ; 
and the earth will be prepared for the people, and the fat rot- 
tenness of the still living forest will be made to give forth its 
riches. 

We found that two days at Cairo were quite enough for us. 
We had seen the gun-boats and the mortar-boats, and gone 
through the sheds of the soldiers. The latter were bad, com- 
fortless, damp, and cold ; and certain quarters of the officers, 
into which we were hospitably taken, were wretched abodes 
enough ; but the sheds of Cairo did not stink like those of 
Benton barracks at St. Louis, nor had illness been prevalent 
there to the same degree. I do not know why this should 
have been so, but such was the result of my observation. The 
locality of Benton barracks must, from its nature, have been 
the more healthy, but it had become by art the foulest place I 
ever visited. Tlu^oughout the army it seemed to be the fact, 
that the me.n under canvas were more comfortable, in better 
spirits, and also in better health than those w^ho were lodged 
in sheds. We had inspected the Cairo army and the Cairo 
navy, and had also seen all that Cairo had to show us of its 
own. We were thoroughly disgusted with the hotel, and re- 
tired on the second night to bed, giving positive orders that 
we might be called at half-past two, with reference to that ter- 
rible start to be made at half-past three. As a matter of course 
we kept dozing and waking till past one, in our fear lest neglect 
on the part of the watcher should entail on us another day at 
this place ; of course we went fast asleep about the time at 
which we should have roused ourselves ; and of course we were 
called just fifteen minutes before the train started. Everybody 
knows how these things always go. And then the pair of us, 
jumping out of bed in that wretched chamber, Avent through 
the mockery of washing and packing which always takes place 
on such occasions ; — a mockery indeed of washing, for there 
was but one basin between us ! And a mockery also of pack- 
ing, for I left my hair-brushes behind me ! Cairo was avenged 
in that I had declined to avail myself of the privileges of free 
citizenship which had been oifered to me in that barber's shop. 
And then, while we were in our agony, pulling at the straps 
of our portmanteaux and swearing at the faithlessness of the 
boots, up came the clerk of the hotel — the great man from 



406 NOKTH AMEEICA. 

behind the bar — and scolded us prodigiously for onr delay. 
" Called ! We had been called an hour ago !" Which state- 
ment, however, was decidedly untrue, as we remarked, not 
with extreme patience. " We should certainly be late," he 
said ; " it would take us five minutes to reach the train, and the 
cars would be off in four." Nobody who has not experienced 
them can understand the agonies of such moments, — of such 
moments as regards travelling in general ; but none who have 
not been at Cairo can understand the extreme agony produced 
by the threat of n prolonged sojourn in that city. At last we 
were out of the house, rushing through the mud, slush, and 
half-melted snow, along the wooden track to the railway, laden 
with bags and coats, and deafened by that melancholy, wailing 
sound, as though of a huge polar she-bear in the pangs of trav- 
ail upon an iceberg, which proceeds from an American railway- 
engine before it commences its work. How we slipped and 
stumbled, and splashed and swore, rushing along in the dark 
ni^ght, with buttons loose, and our clothes half on ! And how 
pitilessly Av'e were treated! We gained our cars, and even 
succeeded in bringing with us our luggage ; but we did not do 
so with the sym'pathy, but amidst the derision of the bystand- 
ers. And then the seats were all lull, and we found that there 
was a lower depth even in the terrible deep of a railway train 
in a western State. There was a second-class carriage, pre- 
pared, I presume, for those who esteemed themselves too dirty 
for association with the aristocracy of Cairo ; and into this we 
flung ourselves. Even this was a joy to us, for we were being 
carried away from Eden. We had acknowledged ourselves to 
be no fitting colleagues for Mark Tapley, and would have been 
glad to escape from Cairo even had we worked our way out 
of the place as assistant-stokers to the engine-driver. Poor 
Cairo ! unfortunate Cairo ! " It is about played out !" said its 
citizen to me. But in truth the play was commenced a little 
too soon. Those players have played out ; but another set will 
yet have their innings, and make a score that shall perhaps be 
talked of far and wide in the western world. 

We w^ere still bent upon army inspection, and with this pur- 
pose went back from Cairo to Louisville in Kentucky. I had 
passed through Louisville before, as told in my last chapter, 
but had not gone south from Louisville towards the Green 
River, and had seen nothing of General Buell's soldiers. I 
should have mentioned before that when we were at St. Louis, 
we asked General Halleck, the oflicer in command of the north- 
ern army of Missouri, whether he could allow us to pass 



CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD. 407 

through his lines to the Soutli. This he assured us he was 
forbidden to do, at the same time oiiering us every faciUty in 
his power for such an expedition if we could obtain the con- 
sent of Mr. Seward, who at that time had apparently succeeded 
in engrossing into his own hands, for the moment, supreme 
authority in all matters of Government. Before leaving Wash- 
ington we had determined not to ask Mr. Seward, having but 
little hope of obtaining his permission, and being unwilling to 
encounter his refusal. Before going to General Halleck we 
had considered the question of visiting the land of Dixie Avith- 
out permission from any of the men in authority. I ascertained 
that this might easily have been done from Kentucky to Ten- 
nessee, but that it could only be done on foot. There are very 
few available roads running North and South through these 
States. The railways came before roads ; and even Vhere the 
railways are far asunder, almost all the traffic of the country 
takes itself to them, preferring a long circuitous conveyance 
Avith steam, to short distarrees without. Consequently such 
roads as there are run laterally to the railways, meeting them 
at this point or that, and thus maintaining the communication 
of the country. Now the railways were of course in the hands 
of the armies. The few direct roads leading from North to 
South were in the same condition, and the bye-roads were 
impassable from mud. The frontier of the North therefore, 
though very extended, was not very easily to be passed, unless, 
as I have said before, by men on foot. For myself I confess 
that I was anxious to go South ; but not to do so without my 
coats and trousers, or shirts and pocket-handkerchiefs. The 
readiest Avay of getting across the line, — and the way which 
was I believe the most frequently used, — was from below Bal- 
timore in Maryland by boat across the Potomac. But in this 
there was a considerable danger of being taken, and I had no 
desire to become a state-prisoner in the hands of Mr. Seward 
under circumstances which would have justified our Minister 
in asking for my release only as a matter of favour. Therefore 
when at St. Louis, I gave up all hopes of seeing " Dixie" during 
my present stay in America. I presume it to be generally 
known that Dixie is the negro's heaven, and that the southern 
slave States, in which it is presumed that they have found a 
Paradise, have sinpe the beginning of the war been so named. 
We remained a few days at Louisville, and were greatly 
struck with the natural beauty of the country around it. In- 
deed, as far as I was enabled to see, Kentucky has superior at- 
tractions as a place of rural residence for an English gentleman, 



408 KOKTU AMERICA. 

to any other State in the Union. There is nothing of landscape 
there equal to the banks of the upper Mississippi, or to some 
parts of the Hudson river. It has none of the wild grandeur 
of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, nor does it break 
itself into valleys equal to those of the Alleghanies in Pennsyl- 
vania. But all those are beauties for the tourist rather than 
for the resident. In Kentucky the land lies in knolls and soft 
sloping hills. The trees stand apart, forming forest openings. 
The herbage is rich, and the soil, though not fertile like the 
prairies of Illinois, or the river bottoms of the Mississippi and 
its tributaries, is good, steadfast, wholesome farming ground. 
It is a fine country for a resident gentleman farmer, and in its 
outward aspect reminds me more of England in its rural as- 
j^ects, than any other State which I visited. Round Louisville 
there are beautiful sites for houses, of which advantage in some 
instances has been taken. But, nevertheless, Louisville though 
a well-built, handsome city, is not now a thriving city. I liked 
it because the hotel was above par, and because the country 
round it was good for walking ; but it has not advanced as Cin- 
cinnati and St. Louis have advanced. And yet its position on 
the Ohio is favourable, and it is well circumstanced as regards 
the wants of its own State. But it is not a free-soil city. Nor 
indeed is St. Louis ; but St. Louis is tending that way, and has 
but little to do with the " domestic institution." At the hotels 
in Cincinnati and St. Louis you are served by white men, and 
are very badly served. At Louisville the ministration is black 
men, " iDound to labour." The difference in the comfort is very 
great. The white servants are noisy, dirty, forgetful, indiffer- 
ent, and sometimes impudent. The negroes are the very re- 
verse of all this ; you cannot hurry them ; but in all other re- 
spects, — and perhaps even in that respect also, — they are good 
servants. This is the work for which they seem to have been 
intended. But nevertheless where they are, life and energy 
seem to languish, and prosperity cannot make any true advance. 
They are symbols of the luxury of the white men who employ 
them, and as such are signs of decay and emblems of decreas- 
ing power. They are good labourers themselves, but their very 
presence makes labour dishonourable. That Kentucky Avili 
sj^eedily rid herself of the institution I believe firmly. When 
she has so done, the commercial city of that State may perhaps 
go a-head again like her sisters. 

At this very time tlie Federal army was commencing that 
series of active movements in Kentucky and through Tennessee 
which led to such important results, and gave to the North the 



CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD. 409 

first solid victories which they had gained since the contest be- 
gan. On the 19th of January one wing of General Biiell's army, 
under General Thomas, had defeated the secessionists near Som- 
erset, in the south-eastern district of Kentucky, under General 
Zollicofler, who was there killed. But in that action the attack 
was made by Zollicoffer and the secessionists. When we were 
at Louisville we heard of the success of that gun-boat expedi- 
tion up the Tennessee river by which Fort Henry Avas taken. 
Fort Henry had been built by the Confederates on the Tennes- 
see, — exactly on the confines of the States of Tennessee and 
Kentucky. They had also another fort. Fort Donelson, on 
the Cumberland river, which at that point runs parallel to the 
Tennessee, and is there distant from it but a very few miles. 
Both these rivers run into the Ohio. Nashville, which is the 
capital of Tennessee, is higher up on the Cumberland ; and it was 
now intended to send the gun-boats down the Tennessee back 
into the Ohio, and thence up the Cumberland, there to attack 
Fort Donelson, and afterwards to assist General Buell's army 
in making its way down to Nashville. The gun-boats were at- 
tached to General Halleck's army, and received their directions 
from St. Louis. General Buell's head-quarters were at Louis- 
ville, and his advanced position Avas on the Green River, on the 
line of the railway from Louisville to Nashville. The seces- 
sionists had destroyed the railway bridge over the Green Riv- 
er, and were now lying at Bowling Green, between the Green 
River and Nashville. This place it was understood that they 
had fortified. 

Matters were in this position when we got a military pass to 
go down by the railway to the army on the Green River, — for 
the railway was open to no one without a military j)ass ; — and 
we started, trusting that Providence would supply us with ra- 
tions and quarters. An ofticer attached to General Buell's staff", 
with whom however our acquaintance was of the very slight- 
est, had telegraphed down to say that we were coming. I can- 
not say that I expected much from the message, seeing that it 
simply amounted to a very thin introduction to a general officer 
to whom we were strangers even by name, from a gentleman 
to whom we had brought a note from another gentleman whose 
acquaintance we had chanced to pick up on the road. We man- 
ifestly had no right to expect much ; but to us, expecting very 
little, very much was given. General Johnson was the officer 
to whose care we were confided, he being a brigadier under 
General M'Cook, who commanded the advance. We were met 
by an aide-de-camp and saddle-horses, and soon found ourselves 



410 * NORTH AMERICA. 

in the General's tent, or rather in a shanty formed of solid up- 
right wooden logs, driven into the ground with the bark still 
on, and having the interstices filled in with clay. This was 
roofed with canvas, and altogether made a very eligible mili- 
tary residence. The General slept in a big box about nine feet 
long and four broad which occupied one end of the shanty, and 
he seemed in all his fixings to be as comfortably put up as any 
gentleman might be when out on such a picnic as this. We 
arrived in time for dinner, which was brought in, table and all, 
by two negroes. The party was made up by a doctor, who 
carved, and two of the staff, and a very nice dinner we had. In 
half-an-hour we were intimate with the whole party, and as fa- 
miliar with the things around us as though we had been living 
in tents all our lives. Indeed I had by this time been so often 
in the tents of the northern army, that I almost felt entitled to 
make myself at home. It has seemed to me that an English- 
man has always been made welcome in these camps. There 
has been and is at this moment a terribly bitter feeling among 
Americans against England, and I have heard this expressed 
quite as loudly by men in the army as by civiUans ; but I think 
I may say that this has never been brought to bear upon indi- 
vidual intercourse. Certainly we have said some very sharp 
things of them, — words which, whether true or false, whether 
deserved or undeserved, must have been offensive to them. I 
have known this feeling of offence to amount almost to an ag- 
ony of anger. But nevertheless I have never seen any falling 
off in the hospitality and courtesy generally shown by a civil- 
ized people to passing visitors. I have argued the matter of 
England's course throughout the war, till I have been hoarse 
with asseverating the rectitude of her conduct and her national 
unselfishness. I have met very strong opponents on the sub- 
ject, and have been coerced into loud strains of voice ; but I 
never yet met one American who was personally uncivil to me 
as an Englishman, or who seemed to be made personally angry 
by my remarks. I found no coldness in that hospitality to 
which as a stranger I was entitled, because of the national ill- 
feeling which circumstances have engendered. And while on 
this subject I will remark, that when travelling I have found it 
expedient to let those with whom I might chance to talk know 
at once that I was an Englishman. In fault of such knowledge 
things would be said which could not but be disagreeable to 
me ; but not even from any rough western enthusiast in a rail- 
way carriage have I ever heard a word spoken insolently to 
England, after I had made my nationality known. I have 



i 



CAIRO AND CASIP WOOD. 411 

learned that "Wellington was beaten at Waterloo ; that Lord 
Palmerston was so unpopular that he could not Avalk alone in the 
streets ; that the House of Commons was an acknowledged fail- 
ure ; that starvation was the normal condition of the British 
people, and that the Queen was a bloodthirsty tyrant. But 
these assertions were not made with the intention that they 
should be heard by an Englishman. To us as a nation they are 
at the present moment unjust almost beyond belief; but I do 
not think that the feeling has ever taken the guise of personal 
discourtesy. 

We spent two days in the camp close upon the Green River, 
and I do not know that I enjoyed any days of my trip more 
thoroughly than I did these. In truth for the last month, since 
I had left Washington, my life had not been one of enjoy- 
ment. I had been rolling in mud and had been damp with 
filth. Camp Wood, as they called this military settlement on 
the Green River, was also muddy; but we were excellently 
well-mounted ; the weather was very cold, but peculiarly fine, 
and the soldiers around us, as far as we could judge, seemed 
to be better off in all respects than those we had visited at St. 
Louis, at Rolla, or at Cairo. They were all in tents, and 
seemed to be light-spirited and happy. Their rations were 
excellent, — but so much may, I think, be said of the whole 
northern army from Alexandria on the Potomac to Springfield 
in the west of Missouri. There was very little illness at that 
time in the camp in Kentucky, and the reports made to us led 
us to think that on the whole this had been the most healthy 
division of the army. The men, moreover, were less muddy 
than their brethren either east or west of them, — at any rate 
this may be said of them as regards the infantry. 

But perhaps the greatest charm of the place to me was the 
beauty of the scenery. The Green River at this spot is as pic- 
turesque a stream as I ever remember to have seen in such a 
country. It lies low down between high banks, and curves 
hither and thither, never keeping a straight line. Its banks 
are wooded ; but not, as is so common in America, by continu- 
ous, stunted, uninteresting forest, but by large single trees 
standing on small patches of meadow by the water-side, with 
the high banks rising over them, with glades through them 
open for the horseman. The rides here in summer must be 
very lovely. Even in winter they were so, and made me in 
love with the place in spite of that brown, dull, barren aspect 
which the presence of an army always creates. I have said 
that the railway bridge which crossed the Green River at this 



412 NORTH AMERICA. 

spot had been destroyed by the secessionists. This had been 
done effectually as regarded the passage of trains, but only in 
part as regarded the absolute fabric of the bridge. It had 
been, and still was when I saw it, a beautifully light construc- 
tion, made of iron and supported over a valley, rather than 
over a river, on tall stone piers. One of these piers had been 
blown up ; but when we were there the bridge had been re- 
paired with beams and wooden shafts. This had just been 
completed, and an engine had passed over it. I must confess 
that it looked to me most perilously insecure ; but the eye un- 
educated in such mysteries is a bad judge of engineering Avork. 
I passed with a horse backwards and forwards on it, and it did 
not tumble down then ; but I confess that on the first attempt 
I was glad enough to lead the horse by the bridle. 

"That bridge w^as certainly a beautiful fabric, and built in a 
most> lovely spot. Immediately under it there was also a pon- 
toon bridge. The tents of General M'Cook's division were im- 
mediately at the northern end of it, and the whole -place was 
alive with soldiers, nailing down planks, pulling up temporary 
rails at each side, carrying over straw for the horses, and pre- 
paring for the general advance of the troops. It was a glo- 
rious day. There had been heavy frost at night ; but the air 
was dry, and the sun though cold was bright. I do not know 
when I saw a prettier picture. It Avould perhaps have been 
nothing without the loveliness of the river scenery ; but the 
winding of the stream at the spot, the sharp wooded hills on 
each side, the forest openings, and the busy, eager, strange 
life together filled the place with no common interest. The 
officers of the army at the spot spoke with bitterest condemna- 
tion of the vandalism of their enemy in destroying the bridge. 
The justice of the indignation I ventured very strongly to 
question. " Surely you would have destroyed their bridge ?" 
I said. " But they are rebels," was the answer. It has been 
so throughout the contest ; and the same argument has been 
held by soldiers and by non-soldiers — by women and by men. 
" Grant that they are rebels," I have answered. " But when 
rebels fight they cannot be expected to be more scrupulous in 
their mode of doing so than their enemies who are not rebels." 
The whole population of the North has from the beginning of 
this war considered themselves entitled to all the privileges of 
belligerents ; but have called their enemies Goths and Vandals 
for even claiming those privileges for themselves. The same 
feeling was at the bottom of their animosity against England. 
Because the South was in rebellion, England should have con- 



CAIRO AND CAMP WOOD. 413 

sented to allow the North to assume all the rights of a bellig- 
erent, and should have denied all those rights to the South ! 
Kobody has seemed to understand that any privilege which a 
belligerent can claim must depend on the very fact of his being 
jn encounter with some other party having the same privilege. 
Our press has animadverted very strongly on the States govern- 
ment for the apparent untruthfulness of their arguments on this 
matter ; but I profess that I believe that Mr. Seward and his 
colleagues, — and not they only but the whole nation, — have so 
thoroughly deceived themselves on this subject, have so talked 
and speechified themselves into a misunderstanding of the mat- 
ter, that they have taught themselves to think that the men of 
the South could be entitled to no consideration from any quar- 
ter. To have rebelled against the stars and stripes seems to a 
northern man to be a crime putting the criminal altogether out 
of all courts, — a crime which should have armed the hands of 
all men against him, as the hands of all men are armed at a dog 
that is mad, or a tiger that has escaped from its keeper. It is 
singular that such a people, a people that has founded itself on 
rebelHon, should have such a horror of rebellion ; but, as far as 
my observation may have enabled me to read their feelings 
rightly, I do believe that it has been as sincere as it is irra- 
tional. 

We were out riding early on the morning of the second day 
of our sojourn in the camp, and met the division of General 
Mitchell, a detachment of General Buell's army, which had been 
in camp between the Green River and Louisville, going forward 
to the bridge which was then being prepared for their passage. 
This division consisted of about 12,000 men, and the road was 
crowded throughout the whole day with them and their wag- 
gons. We first passed a regiment of cavalry, which appeared 
to be endless. Their cavalry regiments are, in general, more 
numerous than those of the infantry, and on this occasion we 
saw, I believe, about 1200 men pass by us. Their horses were 
strong and serviceable, and th(3 men were stout and in good 
health ; but the general appearance of everything about them 
was rough and dirty. The American cavalry have always 
looked to me like brigands. A party of them would, I think, 
make a better picture than an equal number of our dragoons ; 
but if they are to be regarded in any other view than that of 
the picturesque, it does not seem to me that they have been 
got up successfully. On this occasion they were forming them- 
selves into a picture for my behoof, and as the picture was, as 
a picture, very good, I at least have no reason to complain. 



414 NORTH AMERICA. 

We were taken to see one German regiment, a regiment of 
which all the privates were German and all the officers save 
one, — I think the surgeon. We saw the men in their tents, 
and the food which they eat, and were disposed to think that 
hitherto things were going well with them. In the evening 
the colonel and lieutenant-colonel, both of whom had been in 
the Prussian service, if I remember rightly, came up to the 
general's quarters, and we spent the evening together in smok- 
ing cigars and discussing slavery round the stove. I shall nev- 
er forget that night, or the vehement abolition enthusiasm of 
the two German colonels. Our host had told us that he was a 
slave-owner ; and as our wants were supplied by two sable 
ministers, I concluded that he had brought with him a portion 
of his domestic institution. Under such circumstances I my- 
self should have avoided such a subject, having been taught to 
believe that southern gentlemen did not generally take delight 
in open discussions on the subject. But had we been arguing 
the question of the population of the planet Jupiter, or the final 
possibility of the transmutation of metals, the matter could not 
have been handled with less personal feeling. The Germans, 
however, spoke the sentiments of all the Germans of the west- 
ern States, — that is, of all the Protestant Germans, and to them 
is confined the political influence held by the German immi- 
grants. They all regard slavery as an evil, holding on the mat- 
ter opinions quite as strong as ours have ever been. And they 
argue that as slavery is an evil, it should therefore be abolished 
at once. Their opinions are as strong as ours have ever been, 
and they have not had our West Indian experience. Any one 
desiring to understand the present political position of the 
States should realize the fact of the present German influence 
on political questions. Many say that the present President 
was returned by German voters. In one sense this is true, for 
he certainly could not have been returned without them ; but 
for them, or for their assistance, Mr. Breckinridge would have 
been President, and this civil war would not have come to pass. 
As abolitionists they are much more powerful than the repub- 
licans of New England, and also more in earnest. In New 
England the matter is discussed politically ; in the great west- 
ern towns, where the Germans congregate by thousands, they 
profess to view it philosophically. A man, as a man, is entitled 
to freedom. That is their argument, and it is a very old one. 
When you ask them what they would propose to do with 
4,000,000 of enfranchised slaves and with their ruined masters, 
— how they would manage the affairs of those 12,000,000 of 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 415 

people, all whose wealth and work and very life have hitherto 
been hinged and hung upon slavery, they again ask you wheth- 
er slavery is not in itself bad, and whether anything acknowl- 
edged to be bad should be allowed to remain. 

But the American Germans are in earnest, and I am strongly 
of opinion that they will so far have their way, that the coun- 
try which for the future will be their country, will exist with- 
out the taint of slavery. In the northern nationality, which 
wdll reform itself after this war is over, there will, I think, be 
no slave State. That final battle of abolition will have to be 
fought among a people apart ; and I must fear that while it 
lasts their national prosperity will not be great. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 

I TRUST that it may not be thought that in this chapter I am 
going to take upon myself the duties of a mihtary critic. I am 
well aware that I have no capacity for such a task, and that ray 
opinion on such matters would be worth nothing. But it is 
impossible to write of the American States as they were when 
I visited them, and to leave that subject of the American army 
untouched. It was all but impossible to remain for some 
months in the northern States without visiting the army. It 
was impossible to join in any conversation in the States with- 
out talking about the army. It was impossible to make inquiry 
as to the present and future condition of the people without 
basing such inquiries more or less upon the doings of the army. 
If a stranger visit Manchester with the object of seeing what 
sort of place Manchester is, he must visit the cotton mills and 
printing establishments, though he may have no taste for cot- 
ton and no knowledge on the subject of calicoes. Under pres- 
sure of this kind I have gone about from one army to another, 
looking at the drilling of regiments, of the manoeuvres of cav- 
alry, at the practice of artillery, and at the inner life of the 
camps. I do not feel that I am in any degree more fitted to 
take the command of a campaign than I was before I began, or 
even more fitted to say who can and who cannot do so. But I 
have obtained on my own mind's eye a tolerably clear impres- 
sion of the outward appearance of the northern army ; I have 
endeavoured to learn something of the manner in which it was 
brought together, and of its cost as it now stands ; and I have 
learned — as any man in the States may learn, without much 



416 NORTH AMERICA. 

trouble or personal investigation — ^how terrible has been the 
peculation of the contractors and officers by whom that army 
has been supplied. Of these things, writing of the States at 
this moment, I must say something. In what I shall say as to 
that matter of peculation I trust that I may be believed to have 
spoken without personal ill-feeling or individual malice. 

While I was travelling in the States of New England and in 
the North-west, I came across various camps at which young 
regiments were being drilled and new regiments were being 
formed. These lay in our way as we made our journeys, and 
therefore we visited them ; but they were not objects of any 
very great interest. The men had not acquired even any pre- 
tence of soldierlike bearing. The officers for the most part had 
only just been selected, having hardly as yet left their civil 
occupations, and anything like criticism was disarmed by the 
very nature of the movement which had called the men togeth- 
er. I then thought, as I still think, that the men themselves 
were actuated by proper motives, and often by very high mo- 
tives, in joining the regiments. No doubt they looked to the 
pay offered. It is not often that men are able to devote them- 
selves to patriotism without any reference to their personal cir- 
cumstances. A man has got before him the necessity of earn- 
ing his bread, and very frequently the necessity of earn' ng the 
bread of others besides himself. This comes before him not 
only as his first duty, but as the very law of his existence. His 
wages are his life, and when he proposes to himself to serve 
his country that subject of payment comes uppermost as it does 
when he proposes to serve any other master. But the wages 
given, though very high in comparison with those of any other 
army, have not been of a nature to draw together from their 
distant homes at so short a notice, so vast a cloud of men, had 
no other influence been at work. As far as I can learn, the 
average rate of wages in the country since the war began has 
been about 65 cents a day over and beyond the workmen's diet. 
I feel convinced that I am putting this somewhat too low, tak- 
ing the average of all the markets from which the labour has 
been withdrawn. In large cities labour has been higher than 
this, and a considerable proportion of the army has been taken 
from large cities. But taking 65 cents a day as the average, 
labour has been worth about 1 7 dollars a month over and above 
the labourers' diet. In the army the soldier receives 13 dollars 
a month, and also receives his diet and clothes ; in addition to 
this, in many States, 6 dollars a month have been paid by the 
State to the wives and families of those soldiers who have left 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 417 

wives and families in the States behind them. Thus for the 
married men the wages given by the army have been 2 dollars 
a month, or less than 5l. a year, more than his earnings at home, 
and for the unmarried man they have been 4 dollars a month, 
or less than 10^. a year below his earnings at home. But the 
army also gives clothing to the extent of 3 dollars a month. 
This would place the unmarried soldier, in a pecuniary point of 
view, worse off by one dollar a month, or 21. 10s. a year, than 
he would have been at home ; and would give the married man 
5 dollars a month, or 1 21. a year more than his ordinary wages 
for absenting himself from his family. I cannot think therefore 
that the pecuniary attractions have been very great. 

Our soldiers in England enlist at wages which are about one 
half that paid in the ordinary labour market to the class from 
whence they come. But labour in England is uncertain, where- 
as in the States it is certain. In England the soldier with his 
shilling gets better food, than the labourer with his two shil- 
lings ; and the "Englishman has no objection to the rigidity of 
that discipline which is so distasteful to an American. More- 
over, who in England ever dreamed of raising 600,000 new 
troops in six months, out of a population of thirty million ? But 
this has been done in the northern States out of a population of 
eighteen million. If England were invaded, Englishmen would 
come forward in the same way, actuated, as I believe, by the 
same high motives. My object here is simply to show that the 
American soldiers have not been drawn together by the pros- 
pect of high wages, as has been often said since the war began. 

They who inquire closely into the matter will find that hun- 
dreds and thousands have joined the army as privates, who in 
doing so have abandoned all their best worldly prospects, and 
have consented to begin the game of life again, believing that 
their duty to their country has now required their services. 
The fact has been that in the different States a spirit of rivalry 
has been excited. Indiana has endeavoured to show that she 
was as forward as Illinois ; Pennsylvania has been unwilling to 
lag behind New York ; Massachusetts, who has always strug- 
gled to be foremost in peace, has desired to boast that she was 
first in war also ; the smaller States have resolved to make 
their names heard, and those which at first were backward in 
sending troops have been shamed into greater earnestness by 
the public voice. There has been a general feeling throughout 
the people that the thing should be done ; — that the rebellion 
must be put down, and that it must be put down by arms. 
Young men have been ashamed to remain behind ; and their 

S2 " 



418 NORTH AMERICA. 

elders, acting under that glow of patriotism which so often 
warms the hearts of free men, but which perhaps does not 
often remain there long in all its heat, have left their wives and 
have gone also. It may be true that the voice of the majority 
has been coercive on many ; — that men have enlisted partly be- 
cause the public voice required it of them, and not entirely 
through the promptings of individual spirit. Such public voice 
in America is very potent ; but it is not, I think, true that the 
army has been gathered together by the hope of high wages. 

Such was my opinion of the men when I saw them from 
State to State clustering into their new regiments. They did 
not look like soldiers ; but I regarded them as men earnestly 
intent on a work which they believed to be right. Afterwards 
when I saw them in their camps, amidst all the pomps and cir- 
cumstances of glorious war, positively converted into troops, 
armed with real rifles and doing actual military service, I be- 
lieved the same of them, — but cannot say that I then liked them 
so well. Good motives had brought them there. They were 
the same men, or men of the same class, that I had seen before. 
They were doing just that which I knew they would have to 
do. But still I found that the more I saw of them the more I 
lost of that respect for them which I had once felt. I think it 
was their dirt that chiefly operated upon me. Then, too, they 
had hitherto done nothing, and they seemed to be so terribly 
intent upon their rations ! The great boast of this army was 
that they eat meat twice a day, and that their daily supply of 
bread was more than they could consume. 

When I had been two or three weeks in Washington, I went 
over to the army of the Potomac and spent a few days with 
some of the oflicers. I had on previous occasions ridden about 
the camps, and had seen a review at which General Maclellan 
trotted up and down the lines with all his numerous staflT at his 
heels. I have always believed reviews to be absurdly useless 
as regards the purpose for which they are avowedly got up, — 
that, namely, of military inspection. And I believed this espe- 
cially of this review. I do not believe that any Commander- 
in-chief ever learns much as to the excellence or deficiencies of 
his troops by watching their manoeuvres on a vast open space ; 
but I felt sure that General Maclellan had learned nothing on 
this occasion. If before his review he did not know whether 
his men were good as soldiers, he did not 2)0ssess any such 
knowledge after the review. If the matter may be regarded 
as a review of the general ; — if the object was to show him off 
to the men, that they might know how well he rode, and how 



THE AKMY OF THE NOliTH. 419 

grand he looked with his staff of forty or fifty officers at his 
heels, then this review must be considered as satisfactory. 
General Maclellan does ride very well. So much I learned, 
and no more. 

It was necessary to have a pass for crossing the Potomac ei- 
ther from one side or from the other, and such a pass I pro- 
cured from a friend in the War-ofiice, good for the whole pe- 
riod of my sojourn in Washington. The wording of the pass 
was more than ordinarily long, as it recommended me to the 
special courtesy of all whom I might encounter ; but in this re- 
spect it was injurious to me rather than otherwise, as every 
picket by whom I was stopped found it necessary to read it to 
the end. The paper was almost invariably returned to me 
without a word ; but the musket which was not unfrequently 
kept extended across my horse's nose by the reader's comrade 
would be withdrawn, and then I would ride on to the next 
barrier. It seemed to me that these passes were so numerous, 
and were signed by so many officers, that there could have 
been no risk in forging them. The army of the Potomac into 
which they admitted the bearer lay in quarters which were ex- 
tended over a length of twenty miles up and down on the Vir- 
ginian side of the river, and the river could be traversed at five 
different places. Crowds of men and women were going over 
daily, and no doubt all the visitors who so went with innocent 
purposes were provided with proper passports ; but any whose 
purposes were not innocent, and who were not so provided, 
could have passed the pickets with counterfeited orders. This, 
I have little doubt, was done daily. Washington was full of 
secessionists, and every movement of the Federal army was 
communicated to the Confederates at Richmond, at which city 
was now established the Congress and head-quarters of the 
Confederacy. But no such tidings of the Confederate army 
reached those in command at Washington. There were many 
circumstances in the contest which led to this result, and I do 
not think that General Maclellan had any power to prevent it. 
His system of passes certainly did not do so. 

I never could learn from any one what was the true number 
of this army on the Potomac. I have been informed by those 
w^ho professed to know that it contained over 200,000 men, 
and by others who also professed to know, that it did not con- 
tain 100,000. To me the soldiers seemed to be innumerable, 
hanging like locusts over the whole country, — a swarm desola- 
ting everything around them. Those pomps and circumstances 
are not glorious in my eyes. They affect me with a melancholy 



420 NOKTII AMERICA. 

which I cannot avoid. Soldiers gathered together in a camp 
are uncouth and ugly when they are idle ; and when they are 
at work their work is worse than idleness. When I have seen 
a thousand men together, moving their feet hither at one sound 
and thither at another, throwing their muskets about awkward- 
ly, 131-odding at the air with their bayonets, trotting twenty 
paces here and backing ten paces there, wheeling round in un- 
even lines, and looking, as they did so, miserably conscious of 
the absurdity of their own performances, I have always been 
inclined to think how little the world can liave advanced in 
civilization, while grown-up men are still forced to spend their 
days in such grotesque performances. Those to whom the 
" pomps and circumstances" are dear — nay, those by whom 
they are considered simply necessary — will be able to confute 
me by a thousand arguments. I readily own myself confuted. 
There must be soldiers, and soldiers must be taught. But not 
the less pitiful is it to see men of thirty undergoing the goose- 
step, and tortured by orders as to the proper mode of handling 
a long instrument which is half-gun and half-spear. In the days 
of Hector and Ajax, the thing was done in a more picturesque 
manner, and the songs of battle should, I think, be confined to 
those ages. 

The ground occupied by the divisions on the further, or 
south-western side of the Potomac was, as I have said, about 
twenty miles in length and perhaps seven in breadth. Through 
the whole of this district the soldiers were everywhere. The 
tents of the various brigades were clustered together in streets, 
the regiments being divided ; and the divisions, combining the 
brigades, lay apart at some distance from each other. But 
everywhere, at all points, there were some signs of military 
life. The roads were continually thronged with waggons, and 
tracks were opened for horses wherever a shorter way might 
thus be made available. On every side the trees were falling, 
or had fallen. In some places whole woods had been felled 
with the express purpose of rendering the ground impractica- 
ble for troops, and firs and pines lay one over the other, still 
covered with their dark rough foliage, as though a mighty for- 
est had grown there along the ground, without any power to 
raise itself towards the heavens. In other places the trees 
had been chopped off from their trunks about a yard from the 
ground, so that the soldier who cut it should have no trouble 
in stooping, and the tops had been dragged away for firewood, 
or for the erection of screens against the wind. Here and there 
in solitary places there were outlying tents, looking as though 



THE AEMY OF THE NORTH. 421 

each belonged to some military recluse ; and in the neighbour- 
hood of every division was to be found a photographing-estab- 
lishment upon wheels, in order that the men might send home 
to their sweethearts pictures of themselves in their martial 
costumes. 

I wandered about through these camps both on foot and on 
horseback day after day, and every now and then I would 
come upon a farm-house that was still occupied by its old in- 
habitants. Many of such houses had been deserted, and were 
now held by the senior officers of the army ; but some of the 
old families remained, living in the midst of this scene of war 
in a condition most forlorn. As for any tillage of their land, 
that under such circumstances might be pronounced as hope- 
less. Nor could there exist encouragement for farm-work of 
any kind. Fences had been taken down and burned ; the 
ground had been overrun in every direction. The stock had 
of course disappeared ; it had not been stolen, but had been 
sold in a hurry for what under such circumstances it might 
fetch. What farmer could work or have any hope for his land 
in the middle of such a crowd of soldiers ? But yet there were 
the families. The women were in their houses, and the chil- 
dren playing at their doors, and the men, with whom I some- 
times spoke, would stand around with their hands in their 
pockets. They knew that they were ruined ; they expected 
no redress. In nine cases out of ten they were inimical in 
spirit to the soldiers around them. And yet it seemed that 
their equanimity was never disturbed. In a former chapter I 
have spoken of a certain general, — not a fighting general of the 
army, but a local farming general, — who spoke loudly and with 
many curses of the injury inflicted on him by the secessionists. 
With that exception, I heard no loud complaint of personal 
suffering. These Virginian farmers must have been deprived 
of everything, — of the very means of earning bread. They 
still hold by their houses, though they were in the very thick 
of the war, because there they had shelter for their families, 
and elsewhere they might seek it in vain. A man cannot move 
his wife and children if he have no place to which to move 
them, even though his house be in the midst of disease, of pest- 
ilence, or of battle. So it was with them then, but it seemed 
as though they were already used to it. 

But there was a class of inhabitants in that same country to 
whom fate had been even more unkind than to those whom I 
saw. The lines of the northern army extended perhaps seven 
or eight miles from the Potomac, and the lines of the Confed- 



422 NOKTH AMERICA. 

erate army were distant some four miles from those of their 
enemies. There was, therefore, an intervening space or strip 
of ground about four miles broad, which might be said to be 
no man's land. It was no man's land as to military possession, 
but it was still occupied by many of its old inhabitants. These 
people were not allowed to pass the lines either of one army 
or of the other ; or if they did so pass they were not allowed 
to return to their homes. To these homes they were forced 
to cling, and there they remained. They had no market, no 
shops at which to make purchases even if they had money to 
buy ; no customers with whom to deal even if they had prod- 
uce to sell. They had their cows, if they could keep them from 
the Confederate soldiers, their pigs and their poultry ; and on 
them they were living- — a most forlorn life. Any advance 
made by either party must be over their .homesteads. In the 
e-vent of battle they would be in the midst of it ; and in the 
meantime they could see no one, hear of nothing, go no Avhith- 
er beyond the limits of that miserable strip of ground ! 

The earth was hard with frost when I paid my visit to the 
camp, and the general appearance of things around my friend's 
quarters was on that account cheerful enough. It was the mud 
which made things sad and wretched. When the frost came 
it seemed as though the army had overcome one of its worst 
enemies. Unfortunately cold Aveather did not last long. I 
have been told in Washington that they rarely have had so 
open a season. Soon after my departure that terrible enemy, 
the mud, came back upon them, but during my stay the ground 
was hard and the weather very sharp. I slept in a tent, and 
managed to keep my body warm by an enormous overstructure 
of blankets and coats ; but I could not keep my head warm. 
Throughout the night, I had to go down, like a fish beneath 
the water, for protection, and come up for air at intervals, half- 
smothered. I had a stove in my tent, but the heat of that when 
lighted was more terrible than the severity of the frost. 

The tents of the brigade with which I was staying had been 
pitched not without an eye to appearances. They were placed 
in streets as it were, each street having its name, and between 
them screens had been erected of fir-poles and fir-branches, so 
as to keep off the wind. The outside boundaries of the nearest 
regiment was ornamented with arches, crosses, and columns 
constructed in the same way ; so that the quarters of the men 
were reached, as it were, through gateways. The whole thing 
was pretty enough, and while the ground was hard the camp 
was picturesque, and a visit to it was not unpleasant. But un- 



THE ARMY OP THE NORTH. 423 

fortunately the ground was in its nature soft and deep, com- 
posed of red clay, and as the frost went and the wet weather 
came, mud became omnipotent and destroyed all prettiness. 
And I found that the cold weather, let it be ever so cold, was 
not severe upon the men. • It was wet Avhich they feared and 
had cause to fear, both for themselves and for their horses. As 
to the horses, but few of them were protected by any shelter 
or covering whatsoever. Through both frost and wet they 
remained out, tied to the w^heel of a w^aggon or to some tem- 
porary rack at which they were fed. In England we should 
imagine that any horse so treated must perish ; but here the 
animals seemed to stand it. Many of them were miserable 
enough in appearance, but nevertheless they did the Avork re- 
quired of them. I have observed that horses throughout the 
States are treated in a hardier manner than is usually the case 
with us. 

At the period of which I am speaking, January, 1862, the 
health of the army of the Potomac w^as not as good as it had 
been, and was beginning to give way under the efiects of the 
winter. Measles had become very prevalent, and also small- 
pox — though not of a virulent description ; and men, in many 
instances, were sinking under fatigue. I was informed by va- 
rious officers that the Irish regiments were on the whole the 
most satisfactory. Not that they made the best soldiers, for 
it was asserted that they were worse, as soldiers, than the 
Americans or Germans ; not that they became more easily 
subject to rule, for it was asserted that they were unruly; — 
but because they were rarely ill. Diseases wiiich seized the 
American troops on all sides seemed to spare them. The mor- 
tality was not excessive, but the men became sick and ailing, 
and fell under the doctor's hands. 

Mr. Olmstead, w^hose name is well known in England as a 
writer on the Southern States, was at this time secretary to a 
Sanitary Commission on the army, and published an abstract 
of the results of the inquiries made, on which I believe perfect 
reliance may be placed. This inquiry w^as extended to two 
hundred regiments, Avhich were presumed to be included in 
the army of the Potomac ; but these regiments were not all 
located on the Virginian side of the river, and must not there- 
forebe taken as belonging exclusively to the divisions of which 
I have been speaking. Mr. Olmstead says, "The health of our 
armies is evidently not above the average of armies in the field. 
The mortality of the army of the Potomac during the summer 
months averaged 3J per cent.) and for the whole army it is 



424 NOETH AMERICA. 

stated at 5 per cent." *' Of the camps inspected, 5 per cent.," 
he says, " were in admirable order ; 44 per cent, fairly clean 
and well policed. The condition of 26 per cent, was negligent 
and slovenly, and of 24 per cent, decidedly bad, filthy, and dan- 
gerous." Thus 50 per cent, were either negligent and sloven- 
ly, or filthy and dangerous. I wonder what the report would 
have been had Camp Benton at St. Louis been surveyed ! " In 
about 80 per cent, of the regiments the officers claimed to give 
systematic attention to the cleanliness of the men ; but it is re- 
marked that they rarely enforced the washing of the feet, and 
not always of the head and neck." I wish Mr. Olmstead had 
added that they never enforced the cutting of the hair. No 
single trait has been so decidedly disadvantageous to the ap- 
pearance of the American army, as the long, uncombed, rough 
locks of hair which the men have appeared so loth to abandon. 
In reading the above one cannot but think of the condition of 
those other twenty regiments ! 

According to Mr. Olmstead two-thirds of the men were na- 
tive-born, and one-third was composed of foreigners. These 
foreigners are either Irish or German. Had a similar report 
been made of the armies in the West, I think it would have 
been seen that the proportion of foreigners was still greater. 
The average age of the privates was something under twenty- 
five, and that of the officers thirty-four. I may here add, from 
my own observation, that an officer's rank could in no degree 
be predicated from his age. Generals, colonels, majors, cap- 
tains, and lieutenants, had been all appointed at the same time 
and without reference to age or qualification. Political influ- 
ence or the power of raising recruits had been the standard by 
which military rank was distributed. The old West Point of- 
ficers had generally been chosen for high commands, but be- 
yond this everything was necessarily new. Young colonels 
and ancient, captains abounded without any harsh feeling as to 
the matter on either side. Indeed in this resj)ect the practice 
of the country generally was simply carried out. Fathers and 
mothers in America seem to obey their sons and daughters 
naturally, and as they grow old become the slaves of their 
grandchildren. 

Mr. Olmstead says that food was found to be universally 
good and abundant. On this matter Mr. Olmstead might have 
spoken in stronger language Avithout exaggeration. The food 
supplied to the American armies has been extravagantly good, 
and certainly has been wastefully abundant. Very much has 
been said of the cost of the American army, and it has been 



THE AEMY OF THE NORTH. 425 

made a matter of boasting that no army so costly has ever 
been put into the field by any other nation. The assertion is, 
I believe, at any rate true. I have found it impossible to as- 
certain what has hitherto been expended on the army. I much 
doubt whether even Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
or 3Ir. Stanton, the Secretary -at- War, know themselves, and I 
do not suppose that Mr. Stanton's predecessor much cared. 
Some approach, however, may be reached to the amount actu- 
ally paid in wages and for clothes and diet, and I give below a 
statement which I have seen of the actual annual sum proposed 
to be expended on these heads, presuming the army to consist 
of 500,000 men. The army is stated to contain 660,000 men, 
but the former numbers given would probably be found to be 
nearer the mark. 

Dollars. 
Wages of privates, including sergeants and cor- 
poral 86,640,000 

Salaries of regimental officers 2.3, 784,000 

Extra wages of privates ; extra pay to mounted 
officers, and salary of officers above the rank 

of colonel 17,000,000 

127,424,000 

or 
£25,484,000 sterling. 

To this must be added the cost of diet and clothing. The food 
of the men, I was informed, w^as supplied at an average cost 
of 17 cents a day, which, for an army of 500,000 men, would 
amount to 6,200,000/. per annum. The clothing of the men is 
shown by the printed statement of their war department to 
amount to 3 dollars a month for a period of five years. That, 
at least, is the amount allowed to a private of infantry or artille- 
ry. The cost of the cavalry uniforms and of the dress of the non- 
commissioned oflicers is something higher, but not sufficiently 
so to make it necessary to make special provision for the differ- 
ence in a statement so rough as this. At 3 dollars a month 
the clothing of the army would amount to 3,600,000/. The 
actual annual cost would therefore be as follows : — 

Salaries and wages £25,484,400 

Diet of the soldiers 6,200,000 

Clothing for the soldiers , 3,600,000 

£35,284,400 

I believe that these figures may be trusted, unless it be with 
reference to that sum of $17,000,000 or 3,400,000/., which is 
presumed to include the salaries of all general-officers with their 
staffs, and also the extra wages paid to soldiers in certain cases. 



426 NORTH AMERICA. 

This is given as an estimate, and may be over or nnder the 
mark. The sum named as the cost of clothing would be cor- 
rect, or nearly so, if the army remained in its present force for 
five years. If it so remained for only one year the cost would 
be one-fifth higher. It must of course be remembered that the 
sum above named includes simply the wages, clothes, and food 
of the men. It does not comprise the purchase of arms, horses, 
ammunition, or waggons ; the forage of horses ; the transport 
of troops, or any of those incidental expenses of warfare which 
are always, I presume, heavier than the absolute cost of the 
men, and which in this war have been probably heavier than 
in any war ever waged on the face of God's earth. Nor does 
it include that terrible item of peculation as to which I will say 
a word or two before I finish this chapter. 

The yearly total payment of the officers and soldiers of the 
armies is as follows. As regards the officers it must be under- 
stood that this includes all the allowances made to them, except 
as regards those on the stafi!*. The sums named apply only to 
the infantry and artillery. The pay of the cavalry is about ten 
per cent, higher. 

Lieutenant-General. General Scott alone holds that rank in 

the States' army £1,850 

Major-General 1,150 

Brigadier-General 800 

*Colonel 530 

*Lieutenant-Colonel 475 

Major 430 

Captain 300 

First Lieutenant 265 

Second Lieutenant o 245 

First Sergeant 48" 

Sergeant 40 

Corporal 34 

Private 31 

In every grade named the pay is, I believe, higher than that 
given by us, or, as I imagine, by any other nation. It is, how- 
ever, probable that the extra allowances j^aid to some of our 
higher officers when on duty may give to their positions for a 
time a higher pecuniary remuneration. It will of course be 
understood that there is nothing in the American army answer- 
ing to our colonel of a regiment. With us the officer so desig- 
nated holds a nominal command of high dignity and emolument 
as a reward for past services. 

I have already spoken of my visits to the camps of the other 
armies in the field, tliat of General Ilalleck, who held his head- 
* A Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel are attached to each regiment. 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 427 

quarters at St. Louis, in Missouri, and that of General Buell, 
who was at Louisville, in Kentucky. There was also a fourth 
army under General Hunter in Kansas, but I did not make my 
Avay as far west as that. I do not pretend to any military 
knowledge, and should be foolish to attemjit military criticism ; 
but as far as I could judge by appearance, I should say that 
the men in Buell's army were, of the three, in the best order. 
They seemed to me to be cleaner than the others, and, as far 
as I could learn, were in better health. Want of discipline and 
dirt have, no doubt, been the great faults of the regiments gen- 
erally, and the latter drawback may probably be included in 
the former. These men have not been accustomed to act under 
the orders of superiors, and when they entered on the service 
hardly recognized the fact that they would have to do so in 
ought else than in their actual drill and lighting. It is impos- 
sible to conceive any class of men to whom the necessary dis- 
cipline of a soldier would come with more difficulty than to an 
American citizen. The whole training of his life has been 
against it. He has never known respect for a master, or rev- 
erence for men of a higher rank than himself. He has proba- 
bly been made to work hard for his wages, — harder than an 
ISnglishman works, — but he has been his employer's equal. 
The language between them has been the language of equals, 
and their arrangement as to labour and wages has been a con- 
tract between equals. If he did not work he would not get 
his money, — and perhaps not if he did. Under these circum- 
stances he has made his fight with the world ; but those cir- 
cumstances have never taught him that special deference to a 
superior, which is the first essential of a soldier's duty. But 
probably in no respect would that difficulty be so severely felt 
as in all matters appertaining to personal habits. Here at any 
rate the man would expect to be still his own master, acting 
for himself and independent of all outer control. Our English 
Hodge, when taken from the plough to the camp, would, prob- 
ably, submit without a murmur to soap and water and a bar- 
ber's shears; he would have received none of that education 
which would prompt him to rebel against such ordinances; 
but the American citizen, who for a while expects to shake 
hands with his captain whenever he sees him, and is astonished 
when he learns that he must not offer him drinks, cannot at 
once be brought to understand that he is to be treated like a 
child in the nursery ; — that he must change his shirt so often, 
wash himself at such and such intervals, and go through a cer- 
tain process of cleansing his outward garments daily. I met 



428 NORTH AMERICA. 

while travelling a sergeant of an old regular American regi- 
ment, and he spoke of the want of discipline among the volun- 
teers as hopeless. But even he instanced it chiefly by their 
want of cleanliness. " They wear their shirts till they drop off 
their backs," said he ; " and what can you expect from such 
men as that?" I liked that sergeant for his zeal and intelli- 
gence, and also for his courtesy when he found that I was an 
Englishman ; for previous to his so finding he had begun to 
abuse the English roundly, — but I did not quite agree with 
him about the volunteers. It is very bad that soldiers should 
be dirty, bad also that they should treat their captains with 
fiuiiliarity and desire to exchange drinks with the majors. 
])Ut even discipline is not everything; and discipline will come 
at last even to the American soldiers, distasteful as it may be, 
when the necessity for it is made apparent. But these volun- 
teers have great military virtues. They are intelligent, zealous 
in their cause, handy with arras, willing enough to work at all 
mihtary duties, and personally brave. On the other hand they 
are sickly, and there has been a considerable .amount of drunk- 
enness among them. No man who has looked to the subject 
can, I think, doubt that a native American has a lower physical 
development than an Irishman, a German, or an Englishman. 
They become old sooner, and die at an earlier age. As to that 
matter of drink, I do not think that much need be said against 
them. English soldiers get drunk Avhen they have the means 
of doing so, and American soldiers would not get drunk if the 
means were taken away from them. A little drunkenness goes 
a long way in a camp, and ten drunkards will give a bad name 
to a company of a hundred. Let any man travel with twenty 
men of whom four are tipsy, and on leaving them he will tell 
you that every man of them was a drunkard. 

I have said that these men are brave, and I have no doubt 
that they are so. How should it be otherwise with men of 
such a race ? But it must be remembered that there are two 
kinds of courage, one of which is very common and the other 
very uncommon. Of the latter description of courage it can- 
not be expected that much should be found among the privates 
of any army, and perhaps not very many examples among the 
oflicers. It is a courage self-sustained, based on a knowledge 
of the right and on a life-long calculation that any results com- 
ing from adherence to the right will be preferable to any that 
can be produced by a departure from it. This is the courage 
Avhicli will enable a man to stand his ground in battle or else- 
where, though broken worlds should fall around him. The 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 429 

Other courage, which is mainly an affair of the heart or blood 
and not of the brain, always requires some outAvard support. 
The man who finds himself prominent in danger bears himself 
gallantly, because the eyes of many wuU see him ; whether as 
an old man he leads an army, or as a young man goes on a for- 
lorn hope, or as a private carries his officer on his back out of 
the fire, he is sustained by the love of praise. And the men 
who are not individually prominent in danger, who stand their 
ground shoulder to shoulder, bear themselves gallantly also, 
each trusting in the combined strength of his comrades. When 
such combined strength has been acquired, that useful courage 
is engendered which we may rather call confidence, and which 
of all courage is the most serviceable in the army. At the bat- 
tle of Bull's Run the army of the North became panic-stricken 
and fled. From this fact many have been led to beheve that 
the American soldiers would not fight w^ell, and that they could 
not be brought to stand their ground under fire. This I thinlc 
has been an unfair conclusion. In the first place the history of 
the battle of .Bull's Run has yet to be written ; as yet the history 
of the flight only has been given to us. As far as I can learn, 
the northern soldiers did at first fight w^ell ; — so well, that the 
army of the South believed itself to be beaten. But a panic 
was created — at first, as it seems, among the teamsters and 
waggons. A cry was roused, and a rush was made by hund- 
reds of drivers with their carts and horses; and then men who 
had never seen war before, who had not yet had three months' 
drilling as soldiers, to whom the turmoil of that day must have 
seemed as though hell were opening upon them, joined them- 
selves to the general clamour, and fled to Washington, believ- 
ing that all was lost. But at the same time the regiments of 
the enemy were going through the same farce in the other di- 
rection ! It was a battle between troops who knew nothing 
of battles ; of soldiers who were not yet soldiers. That indi- 
vidual high-minded courage, which would have given to each 
individual recruit the self-sustained power against a panic, 
which is to be looked for in a general, was not to be looked for 
in them. Of the other courage of Avhich I have spoken, there 
was as much as the circumstances of the battle would allow. 

On subsequent occasions the men have fought well. We 
should, I think, admit that they have fought very well when 
we consider how short has been their practice at such work. 
At Somerset, at Fort Henry, at Fort Donelson, at Corinth, the 
men behaved with courage, standing well to their arms, though 
at each place the slaughter among them was great. They have 



430 NOBTH AMERICA. 

always gone well into fire, and have generally borne themselves 
well under fire. I am convinced that we in England can make 
no greater mistake than to suppose that the Americans as sol- 
diers are deficient in courage. 

But now I must come to a matter in which a terrible defi- 
ciency has been shown, not by the soldiers, but by those whose 
duty it ^las been to provide for the soldiers. It is impossible 
to speak of the army of the North and to leave untouched that 
hideous subject of army contracts. And I think myself the 
more specially bound to allude to it because I feel that the in- 
iquities which have prevailed, prove with terrible earnestness 
the demoralizing power of that dishonesty among men in high 
places, which is the one great evil of the American States. It 
is there that the deficiency exists, which must be supplied be- 
fore the public men of the nation can take a high rank among 
other public men. There is the gangrene, which must be cut 
out before the government, as a government, can be great. To 
make money is the one thing needful, and men have been anx- 
ious to meddle Avith the affairs of government, because there 
might money be made with the greatest ease. "Make money," 
the Roman satirist said ; " make it honestly if you can, but at 
any rate make money." That first counsel would be consid- 
ered futile and altogether vain by those who have lately dealt 
with the public Avauts of the American States. 

This is bad in a most fatal degree, not mainly because men 
in high places have been dishonest, or because the government 
has been badly served by its own paid officers. That men in 
high places should be dishonest, and that the people should be 
cheated by their rulers is very bad. But there is worse than 
this. The thing becomes so common, and so notorious, that 
the American Avorld at large is taught to believe that dishon- 
esty is in itself good. " It behoves a man to be smart, sir !" 
Till the opposite doctrine to that be learned ; till men in Amer- 
ica, — ay, and in Europe, Asia, and Africa, — can learn that it 
specially behoves a man not to be smart, they will have learned 
little of their duty towards God, and nothing of their duty to- 
wards their neighbour. 

In the instances of fraud against the States' government to 
which I am about to allude, I shall take all my facts from the 
report made to the House of Representatives at Washington 
by a Committee of that House in December, 1861. "Mr. 
Washburne, from the Select Committee to inquire into the 
Contracts of the Government, made the following Report." 
That is the heading of the pamphlet. The Committee was 



THE ARMY OP THE NORTH. 431 

known as the Van Wyck Committee, a gentleman of that name 
having acted as chairman. 

The Committee first went to N"ew York, and began their 
inquiries with reference to the purchase of a steam-boat called 
the ' Catiline.' In this case a certain Captain Comstock had 
been designated from Washington as the agent to be trusted 
in the charter or purchase of the vessel. He agreed on behalf 
of the Government to hire that special boat for 2000?. a month 
for three months, having given information to friends of his 
on the matter, which enabled them to purchase it out-and-out 
for less than 4000?. These friends were not connected with 
shipping matters, but were lawyers and hotel proprietors. The 
Committee conclude "that the vessel was chartered to the 
Government at an unconscionable price ; and that Captain 
Comstock by whom this was effected, while enjoying the pecul- 
iar confidence of the Government^ was acting for and in con- 
cert with the parties who chartered the vessel, and was in fact 
their agent." But the report does not explain why Captain 
Comstock was selected for this work by authority from Wash- 
ington, nor does it recommend that he be punished. It does 
not appear that Captain Comstock had ever been in the regu- 
lar service of the Government ; but that he had been master 
of a steamer. 

In the next place one Starbuck is employed to buy ships. As 
a government agent he buys two for 1300?., and sells them to 
the government for 2900?. The vessels themselves, when de- 
livered at the Navy Yard, were found to be totally unfit for 
the service for which they had been purchased. But why was 
Starbuck employed, when, as appears over and over again in 
the report, New York was full of paid government servants 
ready and fit to do the work ? Starbuck was merely an agent, 
and who will believe that he was allowed to pocket the whole 
difierence of 1600?.? The greater part of the j)lunder was, 
however, in this case refunded. 

Then we come to the case of Mr. George D. Morgan, brother- 
in-law of Mr. Welles, the Secretary of the Navy. I have spoken 
of this gentleman before, and of his singular prosperity. He 
amassed a large fortune in five months, as a government agent 
for the purchase of vessels, he having been a wholesale grocer 
by trade. This gentleman had had no experience whatsoever 
with reference to ships. It is shown by the evidence that he had 
none of the requisite knowledge, and that there were special 
servants of the government in New York at that time, sent 
there specially for such series as these, who were in every 



432 NOKTH AMERICA. 

way trustworthy, and who had the requisite knowledge. Yet 
Mr. Morgan was placed in this position by his brother-in-law 
the Secretary of the Navy, and in that capacity made about 
20,000/. in five months, all of which was paid by the govern- 
ment, as is well shown to have been the fact m the report be- 
fore me. One result of such a mode of agency is given ; — one 
other result, I mean, besides the 20,000/. put mto the pocket 
of the brother of the Secretary of the Navy. A shi23 called the 
'Stars and Stripes' was bought by Mr. Morgan for 11,000/., 
which had been built some months before for 7000/. This ves- 
sel was bought from a company which was blessed with a Pres- 
ident. The President made the bargain with the government 
agent, but insisted on keeping back from his own company 
2000/. out of the 11,000/. for expenses incident to the pur- 
chase. The company did not like being mulcted of its prey, 
and grov/led heavily; but their President declared that such 
bargains were not got at Washington for nothing. Members 
of Congress had to be paid to assist in such things. At least 
he could not reduce his little private bill for such assistance 
below 1600/. He had, he said, j^ositively paid out so much to 
those venal Members of Congress, and had made nothing for 
himself to compensate him for his own exertions. When this 
President came to be examined, he admitted that he had really 
made no payments to Members of Congress. His own capacity 
had been so great that no such assistance had been found nec- 
essary. But he justified his charge on the ground that the sum 
taken by him was no more than the company might have ex- 
pected him to lay out on Members of Congress, or on ex-Mem- 
bers who are specially mentioned, had he not himself carried 
on the business with such consummate discretion! It seems 
to me that the Members or ex-Members of Congress were, 
shamefully robbed in this matter. 

The report deals manfully with Mr. Morgan, showing that 
for five months' work, — which work he did not do and did not 
know how to do, — he receiv^ed as large a sum as the Presi- 
dent's salary for the whole Presidential term of four years. So 
much better is it to be an agent of government than simply an 
officer ! And the Committee adds, that they " do not find in 
this transaction the less to censure in the fact that this arrange- 
ment between the Secretary of the Navy and Mr. Morgan was 
one between brothers-in-law." After that who will believe 
that Mr. Morgan had the whole of that 20,000/. for himself? 
And yet Mr. Welles still remains Secretary of the Navy, and 
has justified the whole transaction in an explanation admitting 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 433 

everything, and which is considered by his friends to be an able 
State paper. " It behoves a man to be smart, sir." Mr. Mor- 
gan and Secretary Welles will no doubt be considered by their 
own party to have done their duty well as high trading public 
functionaries. The faults of Mr. Morgan and of Secretary 
Welles are nothing to us in England ; but the light in which 
such faults may be regarded by the American people is much 
to us. 

I will now go on to the case of a Mr. Cummings. Mr. Cum- 
mings, it appears, had been for many years the editor of a news- 
paper in Philadelphia, and had been an intimate political friend 
and ally of Mr. Cameron. Now at the time of which I am 
writing, April, 1861, Mr. Cameron was Secretary-at-War, and 
could be very useful to an old political ally living in his own 
State. The upshot of the present case will teach us to think 
well of Mr. Cameron's gratitude. 

In April, 1861, stores were Avanted for the army at Washing- 
ton, and Mr. Cameron gave an order to his old friend Cum- 
mings to expend 2,000,000 dollars, pretty much according to 
his fancy, in buying stores. Governor Morgan, the Governor 
of New York State and a relative of our other friend Morgan, 
was joined with Mr. Cummings in this commission, Mr. Cam- 
eron no doubt having felt himself bound to give the friends of 
his colleague at the Navy a chance. Governor Morgan at once 
made over his right to his relative; but better things soon 
came in Mr. Morgan's way, and he relinquished his share in 
this partnership at an early date. In this transaction he did 
not himself handle above 25,000 dollars. Then the whole job 
fell into the hands of Mr. Cameron's old political friend. 

The 2,000,000 of dollars, or 400,000^., were paid into the 
hands of certain government treasurers at New York, but they 
had orders to honour the draft of the political friend of the 
Secretary-at-War, and consequently 50,000^. Avas immediately 
withdrawn by Mr. Cummings, and with this he went to work. 
It is shown that he knew nothing of the business; that he em- 
ployed a clerk from Albany whom he did not know, and con- 
fided to this clerk the duty of buying such stores as were 
bought; that this clerk was recommended to him by Mr. 
Weed, the editor of a newspaper at Albany, who is known 
in the States as the special political friend of Mr. Seward, the 
Secretary of State ; and that in this way he spent 32,000^. He 
bought linen pantaloons and straw hats to the amount of 4200/., 
because he thought the soldiers looked hot in the warm weath- 
er ; but he afterwards learned that they were of no use. He 

T 



434 NOETH AMERICA. 

bought groceries of a hardware dealer at Albany, named David- 
son, that town whence calne Mr. Weed's clerk. He did not 
know what was Davidson's trade, nor did he know exactly what 
he was going to buy ; but Davidson proposed to sell him some- 
thing which Mr. Cummings believed to be some kind of pro- 
visions, and he bought it. He did not know for how much, — 
whether over 2000^. or not. He never saw the articles and 
had no knowledge of their quality. It was out of the question 
that he should have such knowledge, as he naively remarks. 
His clerk Humphreys saw the articles. He presumed they 
were brought from Albany, but did not know. He after- 
wards bought a ship, — or two or three ships. He inspected 
one ship " by a mere casual visit :" that is to say, he did not 
examine her boilers ; he did not know her tonnage, but he took 
the word of the seller for everything. He could not state the 
terms of the charter, or give the substance of it. He had had 
no former experience in buying or chartering ships. He also 
bought 75,000 pair of shoes at only 25 cents, or one shilling a 
pair, more than their proper price. He bought them of a Mr. 
Hall, Avho declares that he paid Mr. Cummings nothing for the 
job, but regarded it as a return for certain previous favours 
conferred by him on Mr. Cummings in the occasional loans of 
100^. or 200^. 

At the end of the examination it appears that Mr. Cummings 
still held in his hand a slight balance of 28,000^., of which he 
had forgotten to make mention in the body of his own evidence. 
"This item seems to have been overlooked by him in his tes- 
timony," says the report. And when the report was made 
nothing had yet been learned of the destiny of this small bal- 
ance. 

Then the report gives a list of the army supplies miscellane- 
ously purchased by Mr. Cummings: — 280 dozen pints of ale at 
9s. 6d. a dozen ; a lot of codfish and herrings ; 200 boxes of 
cheeses and a large assortment of butter ; some tongues ; straw 
hats and linen " pants ;" 23 barrels of pickles ; 25 casks of 
Scotch ale, price not stated ; a lot of London porter, price not 
stated ; and some Hall carbines of which I must say a word 
more further on. It should be remembered that no requisition 
had come from the army for any of the articles named ; that 
the purchase of herrings and straw hats was dictated solely by 
the discretion of Cummings and his man Humphreys, — or, as 
is more probable, by the fact that some other person had such 
articles by him for sale ; and that the government had its own 
established officers for the supply of things properly ordered 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 435 

by military requisition. These very same articles also were 
apparently procured, in the first place, as a private speculation, 
and were made over to the government on the failure of that 
speculation. " Some of the above articles," says the report, 
" were shipped by the ' Catiline,' which were probably loaded 
on private account, and not being able to obtain a clearance 
was in some Avay, through Mr. Cummings, transferred over to 
the government, — Scotch ale^ London porter^ selected herrings^ 
and all." The italics as well as the words are taken from the 
report. 

This was the confidential political friend of the Secretary-at- 
War, by whom he was intrusted with 400,000^. of public 
money ! 28,000/. had not been accounted for when the report 
was made, and the army supplies w^ere bought after the fash- 
ion above named. That Secretary-at-War, Mr. Cameron, has 
since left the Cabinet ; but he has not been turned out in dis- 
grace ; he has been nominated as minister to Russia, and the 
world has been told that there was some difierence of opinion 
between him and his colleagues respecting slavery ! Mr. Cam- 
eron in some speech or paper declared on his leaving the Cabi- 
net that he had not intended to remain long as Secretary-at- 
War. This assertion, I should think, must have been true. 

And now about the Hall carbines, as to which the gentle- 
men on this Committee tell their tale with an evident delight 
in the richness of its incidents which at once })uts all their read- 
ers in accord with them. Tliere were altogether some five 
thousand of these, all of which the government sold to a Mr. 
Eastman in June, 1861, for 145. each, as perfectly useless, and 
afterwards bought in August for 4/. 8s. each, about 45. a car- 
bine having been expended in their repair in the mean time. 
But as regards 790 of these now famous weapons, it must be 
explained they had been sold by the government as perfectly 
useless, and at a nominal price, previously to this second sale 
made by the government to Mr. Eastman. They had been so 
sold, and then, in April, 1861, they had been bought again for 
the government by the indefatigable Cummings for 3/. each. 
Then they were again sold as useless for 14s. each to Eastman, 
and instantly rebought on behalf of the government for U. 8s. 
each. Useless for war purposes they may have been, but as 
articles of commerce it must be confessed that they Avere very 
serviceable. 

This last purchase was made by a man named Stevens on be- 
half of General Fremont, who at that time commanded the 
army of the United States in Missouri. Stevens had been em- 



436 NORTH AMERICA. 

ployed by General Fremont as an agent on the behalf of gov- 
ernment, as is shown with clearness in the report, and on hear- 
ing of these muskets telegraphed to the General at once. " I 
have 5000 Hall's rifled cast-steel muskets, breech-loading, new, 
at 22 dollars." General Fremont telegraphed back instantly, 
" I will take the whole 5000 carbines ... I will pay all extra 
charges . . . ." And so the purchase was make. The mus- 
kets, it seems, were not absolutely useless even as weapons of 
war. " Considering the emergency of the times," a competent 
witness considered them to be worth " 10 or 12 dollars." The 
government had been as much cheated in selling them as it had 
in buying them. But the nature of the latter transaction is 
shown by the facts that Stevens was employed, though irre- 
sponsibly employed, as a government agent by General Fre- 
mont ; that he bought the muskets in that character himself, 
making on the transaction 1/. 185. on each musket; and that 
the same man afterwards appeared as an aide-de-camp on Gen- 
eral Fremont's staff. General Fremont had no authority him- 
self to make such a purchase, and when the money Avas paid 
for the first instalment of the arms, it was so paid by the spe- 
cial order of General Fremont himself out of moneys intended 
to be applied to other purposes. The money was actually paid 
to a gentleman known at Fremont's head-quarters as his spe- 
cial friend, and was then paid in that irregular way because this 
friend desired that that special bill should receive immediate 
payment. After that who can believe that Stevens was him- 
self allowed to pocket the whole amount of the plunder ? 

There is a nice little story of a clergyman in New York who 
sold for 4:01. and certain further contingencies, the right to fur- 
nish 200 cavalry horses ; but I should make this too long if I 
told all the nice little stories. As the frauds at St. Louis were, 
if not in fact the most monstrous, at any rate the most mon- 
strous which have as yet been brought to the light, I cannot 
finish this account without explaining something of what was 
going on at that Avestern Paradise in those halcyon days of 
General Fremont. 

General Fremont, soon after reaching St. Louis, undertook to 
build ten forts for the protection of that city. These forts have 
since been pronounced as useless, and the whole measure has 
been treated with derision by ofiicers of his own army. But 
the judgment displayed in the matter is a military question 
with which I do not presume to meddle. Even if a general be 
wrong in such a matter, his character as a man is not disgraced 
by such error. But the manner of building them was the affair 



THE ARMY OF THE NORTH. 437 

with which Mr. Van Wyck's committee had to deal. It seems 
that five of the forts, the five largest, were made under the or- 
ders of a certain Major Kappner at a cost of 12,000^., and that 
the other five could have been built at least for the same sum. 
Major Kappner seems to have been a good and honest public 
servant, and therefore quite unfit for the superintendence of 
such work at St. Louis. The other five smaller forts were also 
in progress. The works on them having been continued from 
1st September to 25th September, 1861 ; but on the 25th Sep- 
tember General Fremont himself gave special orders that a 
contract should be made with a man named Beard, a Californi- 
an, who had followed him from California to St. Louis. This 
contract is dated the 25th of September. But nevertheless the 
work specified in that contract was done previous to that date, 
and most of the money paid was paid 23revious to that date. 
The contract did not specify any lump sum, but agreed that the 
work should bo paid for by the yard and by the square foot. 
No less a sum was paid to Beard for this work — the cormorant 
Beard, as the report calls him — than 24,200^., the last payment 
only, amounting to 4000^., having been made subsequent to the 
date of the contract. 20,200^. was paid to Beard before the 
date of the contract ! The amounts were paid at five times, 
and the last four payments wer.e made on the personal order 
of General Fremont. This Beard was under no bond, and none 
of the oflicers of the government knew anything of the terms 
under which he was working. On the 14th of October Gen- 
eral Fremont was ordered to discontinue these works, and to 
abstain from making any further payments on their account. 
But, disobeying this order, he directed his Quartermaster to 
pay a further sum of 4000?. to Beard out of the first sums he 
•should receive from Washington, he then being out of money. 
This however was not paid. " It must be understood," says 
the report, " that every dollar ordered to be paid by General 
Fremont on account of these works was diverted from a fund 
specially appropriated for another purpose." And then again, 
''The money appropriated by Congress to subsist and clothe 
and transport our armies was then, in utter contempt of all law 
and of the army regulations, as well as in defiance of superior 
authority, ordered to be diverted from its lawful purpose and 
turned over to the cormorant Beard. While he had received 
170,000 dollars (24,200?.) from the Government, it will be seen 
from the testimony of Major Kappner that there had only been 
paid to the honest German labourers, who did the work on the 
first five forts built under his directions, the sum of 15,500 dol- 



438 NORTH AMERICA. 

lars (3100?.), leaving from 40,000 to 50,000 dollars (8000?. to 
10,000?.) still due; and while these labourers, whose families 
were clamoring for bread, were besieging the Quartermaster's 
department for their pay, this infamous contractor Beard is 
found following up the army and in the confidence of the Major- 
General, who gives him orders for large purchases, which could 
only have been legally made through the Quartermaster's de- 
partment." After that, who will believe that all the money 
went into Beard's pocket ? Why should General Fremont have 
committed every conceivable breach of order against his govern- 
ment, merely with the view of favouring such a man as Beard ? 

The collusion of the Quartermaster M'Instry Avith fraudulent 
knaves in the purchase of horses is then proved. M'Instry was 
at this time Fremont's Quartermaster at St. Louis. I cannot 
go through all these. A man of the name of Jim Neil comes 
out in beautiful pre-eminence. No dealer in horses could get 
to the Quartermaster except through Jim Neil, or some such 
go-between. The Quartermaster contracted with Neil and 
Neil with the owners of horses ; Neil at the time being also 
military insj^ector of horses for the Quartermaster. He bought 
horses as cavalry horses for 24?. or less, and passed them him- 
self as artillery horses for 30?. In other cases the military in- 
spectors were paid by the sellers to pass horses. All this was 
done under Quartermaster M'Instry, who would himself deal 
with none but such as Neil. In one instance, one Elleard got 
a contract from M'Instry, the profit of which was 8000?. But 
there was a man named I3rady. Noav Brady was a friend of 
M'Instry's, who scenting the carrion afar off, had come from 
Detroit, in Michigan, to St. Louis. M'Instry himself had also 
come from Detroit. In this case Elleard was simply directed 
by M'Instry to share his profits with Brady, and consequently 
paid to Brady 4000?., although Brady gave to the business nei- 
ther capital nor labour. He simply took the 4000?. as the Quar- 
termaster's friend. This Elleard, it seems, also gave a carriage 
and horses to Mrs. Fremont. Indeed Elleard seems to have 
been a civil and generous fellow. Then there is a man named 
Thompson, whose case is very amusing. Of him the Commit- 
tee thus speaks : — " It must be said that Thompson was not for- 
getful of the obligations of gratitude, for, after he got through 
with the contract, he presented the son of Major M'Instry 
with a riding pony. That was the only mark of respect," to 
use his own words, "that he showed to the family of Major 
M'Instry." 

General Fremont himself desired that a contract should be 



THE AEMY OF THE NORTH. 439 

made with one Augustus Sacchi for a thousand Canadian 
horses. It turned out that Sacchi was " nobody ; a man of 
straw living in a garret in New York whom nobody knew, a 
man who was brought out there" — to St. Louis — " as a good 
person through whom to work." " It will hardly be believed," 
says the report, " that the name of this same man Sacchi ap- 
pears in the newspapers as being on the staff of General Fre- 
mont, at Springfield, with the rank of captain." 

I do not know that any good would result from my pursu- 
ing further the details of this wonderful report. The remain- 
ing portion of it refers solely to the command held by General 
Fremont in Missouri, and adds proof upon proof of the gross 
robberies inflicted upon the government of the States by the 
very persons set in high authority to protect the government. 
We learn how all utensils for the camp, kettles, blankets, shoes, 
mess-pans, &c., were supplied by one firm, without a contract, 
at an enormous price, and of a cpiality so bad as to be almost 
useless, because the Quartermaster was under obligations to the 
partners. We learn that one partner in that firm gave 4:01. 
towards a service of plate for the Quartermaster, and QOl. to- 
wards a carriage for Mrs. Fremont. We learn how futile were 
the efibrts of any honest tradesman to supply good shoes to 
soldiers who were shoeless, and the history of one sj^ecial pair 
of shoes which was thrust under the nose of the Quartermaster 
is very amusing. We learn that a certain paymaster properly 
refused to settle an account for matters with which he had no 
concern, and that General Fremont at once sent down soldiers 
to arrest him unless he made the illegal payment. In October 
1000/. was expended in ice, all which ice was wasted. Regi- 
ments were sent hither and thither with no military purpose, 
merely because certain ofiicers, calling themselves generals, 
desired to make up brigades for themselves. Indeed every 
description of fraud was perpetrated, and this was done not 
through the negligence of those in high command, but by their 
connivance and often with their express authority. 

It will be said that the conduct of General Fremont during 
the days of his command in Missouri is not a matter of much 
moment to us in England ; that it has been properly l^andled 
by the Committee of Kepresentatives appointed by the Amer- 
ican Congress to inquire into the matter ; and that after the 
publication of such a report by them, it is ungenerous in a 
writer from another nation to speak upon the subject. This 
would be so if the inquiries made by that Committee and their 
report had resulted in any general condemnation of the men 



440 NORTH AMERICA. 

whose misdeeds and peculations have been exposed. This, 
however, is by no means the case. Those who were hereto- 
fore opposed to General Fremont on political principles are op- 
posed to him still ; but those who heretofore supported him 
are ready to support him again.* He has not been placed be- 
yond the pale of public favour by the record which has been 
made of his public misdeeds. He is decried by the democrats 
because he is a republican, and by the anti-abolitionists because 
he is an abolitionist; but he is not decried because he has shown 
himself to be dishonest in the service of his government. He 
was dismissed from his command in the West, but men on his 
side of the question declare that he was so dismissed because 
his political opponents had prevailed. Now, at the moment 
that I am writing this, men are saying that the President must 
give him another command. He is still a major-general in the 
army of the State, and is as probable a candidate as any other 
that I could name for the next Presidency. 

The same argument must be used with reference to the other 
gentlemen named. Mr. Welles is still a Cabinet Minister and 
Secretary for the Navy. It has been found impossible to keep 
Mr. Cameron in the Cabinet, but he was named as the Minister 
of the States' government to Russia after the publication of the 
Van Wyck report, when the result of his old political friend- 
ship with Mr. Alexander Cummings was Avell known to the 
President who appointed him and to the Senate who sanctioned 
his appointment. The individual corruption of any one man — • 
of any ten men — is not much. It should not be insisted on 
loudly by any foreigner in making up a balance-sheet of the 
virtues and vices of the good and bad qualities of any nation. 
But the light in which such corruption is viewed by the people 
whom it most nearly concerns is very much. I am far from 
saying that democracy has failed in America. Democracy 
there has done great things for a numerous people, and will 
yet, as I think, be successful. But that doctrine as to the ne- 
cessity of smartness must be eschewed before a verdict in fa- 
vour of American democracy can be pronounced. "It behoves 
a man to be smart, sir." In those words are contained the 

* Sinae this was written General Fremont has been restored to high mili- 
tary command, and now holds equal rank and equal authority with Maclellan 
and Halleck. In fact, the charges made against him by the Committee of 
the House of Representatives have not been allowed to stand in his way. He 
is politically popular with a large section of the nation, and therefore it has 
been thought well to promote him to high place. "Whether he be fit for such 
place, either as regards capability or integrity, seeras to be considered of no 
moment. 



BACK TO BOSTOX. 441 

curse under which the States' government has been suffering 
for the last thirty years. Let us hope that the people will find 
a mode of ridding themselves of that curse. I, for one, believe 
that they will do so. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

BACK TO BOSTON. 

From Louisville we returned to Cincinnati, in making which 
journey we were taken to a place called Seymour in Indiana, 
at which spot we Avere to "make connection" with the train 
running on the Mississippi and Ohio line from St. Louis to Cin- 
cinnati. We did make the connection, but were called upon 
to remain four hours at Seymour in consequence of some acci- 
dent on the line. In the same way, when going eastwards 
from Cincinnati to Baltimore a few days later, I was detained 
another four hours at a place called Crossline, in Ohio. On 
both occasions I spent my time in realizing, as far as that might 
be possible, the sort of life which men lead who settle them- 
selves at such localities. Both these towns, — for they call 
themselves towns, — had been created by the railways. Indeed 
this has been the case with almost every place at which a few 
hundred inhabitants have been drawji together in the Western 
States. With the exception of such cities as Chicago, St. Louis, 
and Cincinnati, settlers can hardly be said to have chosen their 
Own localities. These have been chosen for them by the orig- 
inators of the different lines of railway. And there' is nothing 
in Europe in any way like to these western railway settlements. 
In the first place the line of the rails runs through the main 
street of the town, and forms not uufrequently the only road. 
At Seymour I could find no way of getting away from the rails 
unless I went into the fields. At Crossline, which is a larger 
place, I did find a street in which there was no railroad, but it 
was deserted, and manifestly out of favour with the inhabitants. 
As there were railway junctions at both these posts, there were 
of course cross-streets, and the houses extended themselves from 
the centre thus made along the lines, houses being added to 
houses at short intervals as new comers settled themselves 
down. The pantmg and groaning, and whistling of engines is 
continual; for at such places freight trains are always kept 
waiting for passenger trains, and the slower freight trains for 
those which are called fast. This is the life of the town ; and 
indeed as the whole place is dependent on the railway, so is the 

T 2 



442 NORTH AMERICA. 

railway held in favour and beloved. The noise of the engines 
is not disliked, nor are its puffings and groanings held to be 
unmusical. With us a locomotive steam-engine is still, as it 
were, a beast of prey, against which one has to be on one's 
guard, — in respect to which one specially warns the children. 
But there, in the Western States, it has been taken to the 
bosoms of them all as a domestic animal; no one fears it, and 
the little children run about almost among its wheels. It is 
petted and made much of on all sides, — and, as far as I know, 
it seldom bites or tears. I have not heard of children being 
destroyed wholesale in the streets, or of drunken men becom- 
ing frequent sacrifices. Bvit had I been consulted beforehand 
as to the natural effects of such an arrangement, I should have 
said that no child could have been reared in such a town, and 
that any continuance of population under such circumstances 
must have been impracticable. 

Such places, however, do thrive and prosper with a prosper- 
ity especially their own, and the boys and girls increase and 
multiply in spite of all dangers. With us in England, it is dif- 
ficult to realize the importance which is attached to a railway 
in the States, and the results which a railway creates. We 
have roads everywhere, and our country had been cultivated 
throughout, Avith more or less care, before our system of rail- 
ways had been commenced ; but in America, especially in the 
North, the railways have been the precursors of cultivation. 
They have been carried hither and thither, through primeval 
forests and over prairies, with sma|l hope of other traffic than 
that which they themselves Avould make by their own influ- 
ences. The people settling on their edges have had the very 
best of all roads at their service ; but they have had no other 
roads. Tlie fiice of the country between one settlement and 
another is still in many cases utterly unknown ; but there is 
the connecting road by which produce is carried away, and 
new comers are brought in. The town that is distant a hund- 
red miles by the rail is so near that its inhabitants are neigh- 
bours ; but a settlement twenty miles distant across the unclear- 
ed country is unknown, unvisited, and probably unheard of by 
the women and children. Under such circumstances the rail- 
way is everything. It is the first necessity of life, and gives 
the only hope of wealth. It is the backbone of existence from 
whence spring, and by w^hicli ai^ protected, all the vital organs 
and functions of the community. It is the right arm of civili- 
zation for the people, and the discoverer of the fertility of the 
land. It is all in all to those people, and to those regions. It 



BACK TO BOSTON. 443 

has supplied the wants of frontier life with all the substantial 
comfort of the cities, and carried education, progress, and so- 
cial habits into the wilderness. To the eye of the stranger such 
places as Seymour and Crossline are desolate and dreary. 
There is nothing of beauty in them, given either by nature or 
by art. The railway itself is ugly, and its numerous sidings 
and branches form a mass of iron road which is bewildering, 
and, according to my ideas, in itself disagreeable. The wood- 
en houses open down upon the line, and have no gardens to re- 
lieve them. A foreigner, when first surveying such a spot, will 
certainly record within himself a verdict against it ; but in do- 
ing so he probably commits the error of judging it by a wrong 
standard. He should compare it with the new settlements 
which men have opene'd up in spots where no railway has as- 
sisted them, and not with old towns in which wealth has long 
been congregated. The traveller may see what is the place 
with the railway ; then let him consider how it might have 
thriven without the railway. 

I confess that I became tired of my sojourn at both the 
places I have named. At each I think that I saw every house 
in the place, although my visit to Seymour was made in the 
night ; and at both I was lamentably at a loss for something to 
do. At Crossline I was all alone, and began to feel that the 
hours which X knew must pass before the missing train could 
come, would never make away with themselves. There were 
many others stationed there as I was, but to them had been 
given a capability for loafing which niggardly Nature has de- 
nied to me. An American has the power of seating himself 
in the close vicinity of a hot stove and feeding in silence on liis 
own thoughts by Hie hour together. It may be that he will 
smoke ; but after a while his cigar will come to an end. He 
sits on, however, certainly patient, and apparently contented. 
It may be that he chews, but if so, he does it with motionless 
jaws, and so slow a mastication of the pabulum on which he 
feeds, that his employment in this respect only disturbs the ab- 
solute quiet of the circle when, at certain long, distant inter- 
vals, he deposits the secretion of his tobacco in an ornamental 
utensil which may probably be placed in the furthest corner 
of the hall. But during all this time he is happy. It does not 
fret him to sit there and think and do nothing. He is by no 
means an idle man, — probably one much given to commercial 
enterprise. Idle men out there in the West we may say there 
are none. How should any idle man live in such a country? 
All who were sitting hour after hour in that circle round the 



444 NORTH AMERICA. 

Stove of the Crossline Hotel hall, — sitting there hour after hour 
in silence, as I could not sit, — were men Avho earned their bread 
by labour. They were farmers, mechanics, storekeepers ; there 
was a lawyer or two, and one clergyman. Sufficient conversa- 
tion took place at first to indicate the professions of many of 
them. One may conclude that there could not be place there 
for an idle man. But they all of them had a capacity for a 
prolonged state of doing nothing, which is to me unintelligible, 
and which is very much to be envied. They are patient as 
cows, which from hour to hour lie on the grass chewing their 
cud. An Englishman, if he be kept waiting by a train in some 
forlorn station in which he can find no employment, curses his 
fate and all that has led to his present misfortune with an en- 
ergy which tells the story of his deep and thorough misery. 
Such, I confess, is my state of existence under such circum- 
stances. But a Western American gives himself up to "loaf- 
ing," and is quite happy. He balances himself on the back 
legs of an arm-chair, and remains so, without speaking, drink- 
ing, or smoking, for an hour at a stretch ; and while he is do- 
ing so he looks as though he had all that he desired. I believe 
that he is happy, and that he has all that he wants for such an 
occasion ; — an arm-chair in which to sit, and a stove on which 
he can put his feet, and by which he can make himself warm. 

Such was not the phase of character which I had expected 
to find among the people of the West. Of all virtues, patience 
would have been the last which I should have thought of at- 
tributing to them. I should have expected to see them angry 
Avhen robbed of their time, and irritable under the stress of 
such grievances as railway delays ; but they are never irritable 
under such circumstances as I have attempted to describe, nor, 
indeed, are they a people prone to irritation under any griev- 
ances. Even in political matters they are long-enduring, and 
do not form themselves into mobs for the exjjression of hot 
opinion. We in England thought that masses of the people 
would rise in anger if Mr. Lincoln's government should consent 
to give up Slidell and Mason ; but the people bore it without 
any rising. The habeas corpus has been suspended, the liberty 
of the press has been destroyed for a time, the telegraph wires 
have been taken up by the government into their own hands ; 
but nevertheless the people have said nothing. There has been 
no rising of a mob, and not even an expression of an adverse 
opinion. The people require to be allowed to vote periodical- 
ly, and having acquired that privilege permit other matters to 
go by the board. In this respect we have, I think, in some de- 



BACK TO BOSTON. 445 

gree misunderstood their character. They have all been taught 
to reverence the nature of that form of government under which 
they live, but they are not specially addicted to hot political 
fermentation. They have learned to understand that demo- 
cratic institutions have given them liberty, and on that subject 
they entertain a strong conviction which is universal. But they 
have not habitually interested themselves deeply in the doing's 
of their legislators or of their government. On the subject of 
slavery there have been and are different opinions, held with 
great tenacity, and maintained occasionally with violence ; but 
on other subjects of daily policy the American people have not, 
I think, been eager politicians. Leading men in public life 
have been much less trammelled by popular will than among 
us. Indeed with us the most conspicuous of our statesmen and 
legislators do not lead, but are led. In the States the noted 
politicians of the day have been the leaders, and not unfre- 
quently the coercers of opinion. Seeing this, I claim for En- 
gland a broader freedom in political matters than the States 
have as yet achieved. In speaking of the American form of 
government, I will endeavour to explain more clearly the ideas 
which I have* come to hold on this matter. 

I survived my delay at Seymour, after which I passed again 
through Cincinnati, and then survived my subsequent delay at 
Crossline. As to Cincinnati, I must put on record the result 
of a country Avalk wdiich I took there, — or rather on which I 
w^as taken by my friend. He professed to know the beauties 
of the neighbourhood, and to be w^ell acquainted Avitli all that 
was attractive in its vicinity. Cincinnati is built on the Ohio, 
and is closely surrounded by picturesque hills Avhich overhang 
the suburbs of the city. Over these I was taken, ploughing my 
way through a depth of mud which cannot be understood by 
any ordinary Englishman. But the depth of mud was not the 
only impediment, nor the worst wiiich we encountered. As we 
began to ascend from the level of the outskirts of the town we 
w^ere greeted by a rising flavour in the air, which soon grew 
into a strong odour, and at last developed itself into a stench 
that surpassed in offensiveness anything that my nose had ever 
hitherto suffered. When we were at the worst we hardly knew 
whether to descend or to proceed. It had so increased in vir- 
ulence, that at one time I felt sure that it arose from some mat- 
ter buried in the ground beneath my feet. But my friend, who 
declared himself to be quite at home in Cincinnati matters, and 
to understand the details of the great Cincinnati trade, declared 
against this opinion of mine. Hogs, he said, ^y^Ye at the bot- 



446 NORTH AMERICA. 

torn of it. It was tlie odour of hogs going up to the Ohio 
heavens; — of hogs in a state of transit from hoggish nature to 
clothes-brushes, saddles, sausages, and lard. He spoke with an 
authority that constrained belief; but I can never forgive him 
in that he took me over those hills, knowing all that he profess- 
ed to know. Let the visitors to Cincinnati keep themselves 
within the city, and not wander forth among the mountains. 
It is well that the odour of hogs should ascend to heaven and 
not hang heavy over the streets ; but it is not well to intercept 
that odour in its ascent. My friend became ill with fever, and 
had to betake himself to the care of nursing friends ; so that I 
parted company with him at Cincinnati. I did not tell him 
that his illness was deserved as well as natural, but such was 
my feeling on the matter. I myself happily escaped the evil 
consequences which his imprudence might have entailed on me. 
I passed again through Pittsburg, and over the Alleghany 
mountains by Altoona, and down to Baltimore, — back into civ- 
ilization, secession, conversation, and gastronomy. I never had 
secessionist sympathies and never expressed them. I always 
believed in the North as a people, — discrediting, however, to 
the utmost the existing northern Government, or, as I should 
more properly say, the existing northern Cabinet ; but never- 
theless, with such feelings and such belief, I found myself very 
happy at Baltimore. Putting aside Boston, which must, I 
think, be generally preferred by Englishmen to any other city 
in the States, I should choose Baltimore as my residence if I 
were called upon to live in America. I am not led to this 
opinion, if I know myself, solely by the canvas-back ducks ; and 
as to the terrapins, I throw them to the winds. The madeira, 
which is still kept there with a reverence which I should call 
superstitious were it not that its free circulation among outside 
worshippers prohibits the just use of such a word, may have 
something to do with it; as may also the beauty of the wom- 
en, — to some small extent. Trifles do bear upon our happiness 
in a manner that we do not ourselves understand, and of which 
we are unconscious. But there was an English look about the 
streets and houses which I think had as much to do with it as 
either the wine, the women, or the ducks ; and it seemed to me 
as though the manners of the people of Maryland were more 
English than those of other Americans. I do not say that they 
were on this account better. My English hat is, I am well 
aware, less graceful, and I believe less comfortable, than a Turk- 
ish fez and turban ; nevertheless I prefer my English hat. 
New York I regard as the most thoroughly American of all 



BACK TO BOSTON. 447 

American cities. It is by no means the one in which I should 
find myself the happiest, but I do not on that account con- 
demn it. 

I have said that in returning to Baltimore I found myself 
among secessionists. In so saying, I intend to speak of a cer- 
tain set whose influence depends perhaps more on their wealth, 
I30sition, and education than on their numbers. I do not think 
that the population of the city was then in favour of secession, 
even if it had ever been so. I believe that the mob of Balti- 
more is probably the roughest mob in the States, — is more akin 
to a Paris mob, and I may, perhaps, also say to a Manchester 
mob, than that of any other American city. There are more 
roughs in Baltimore than elsewhere, and the roughs there are 
rougher. In those early days of secession, when the troops 
were being first hurried down from New England for the pro- 
tection of Washington, this mob was vehemently opposed to 
its progress. Men had been taught to think that the rights of 
the State of Maryland "were being invaded by the passage of 
the soldiers ; and they also Avere undoubtedly imbued with a 
strong prepossession for the southern cause. The two ideas 
had then gone together. But the mob of Baltimore had ceased 
to be secessionists w^ithin tw^elve months of their first exploit. 
In April, 1861, they had refused to allow Massachusetts sol- 
diers to pass through the town on their way to Washington; 
and in February, 1862, they were nailing Union flags on the 
door-posts of those who refused to display such banners as signs 
of triumph at the northern victories ! 

That Maryland can ever go with the South, even in the 
event of the South succeeding in secession, no Marylander can 
believe. It is not pretended that there is any struggle now 
going on with such an object. No such result has been ex- 
l^ected, certainly since the possession of Washington was se- 
cured to the North by the army of the Potomac. By few, I 
believe, was such a result expected even when Washington was 
insecure. And yet the feeling for secession among a certain 
class in Baltimore is as strong now as ever it was. And it is 
equally strong in certain districts of the State, — in those dis- 
tricts which are most akin to Virginia in their habits, modes 
of thought, and ties of friendship. These men, and these wom- 
en also, pray for the South if they be pious, give their money 
to the South if they be generous, work for the South if they be 
industrious, fight for the South if they be young, and talk for 
the South mornmg, noon, and night in spite of General Dix 
and his columbiads on Federal Etill. It is in vain to say that 



448 NOETH AMERICA. 

such men and women have no strong feeling on the matter, 
and that they are praying, working, fighting, and talking nnder 
dictation. Their hearts are in it. And judging from them, 
even though there were no other evidence from which to judge, 
I have no doubt that a similar feeling is strong through all 
the seceding States. On this subject the North, I think, de- 
ceives itself in supposing that the southern rebellion has been 
carried on without any strong feeling on the part of the 
southern people. Whether the mob of Charleston be like the 
mob of Baltimore I cannot tell ; but I have no doubt as to the 
gentry of Charleston and the gentry of Baltimore being in ac- 
cord on the subject. 

In what way, then, when the question has been settled by 
the force of arms, Avill these classes find themselves obliged to 
act ? In Virginia and Maryland they comprise, as a rule, the 
highest and best educated of the people. As to parts of Ken- 
tucky the same thing may be said, and probably as to the 
whole of Tennessee. It must be remembered that this is not 
as though certain aristocratic families in a few English counties 
should find themselves divided off from the politics and nation- 
al aspirations of their countrymen, — as was the case long since 
with reference to the Roman Catholic adherents of the Stuarts, 
and as has been the case since then in a lesser degree with the 
firmest of the old Tories who had allowed themselves to be de- 
ceived by Sir Robert Peel. In each of these cases the minor- 
ity of dissentients was so small that the nation suffered noth- 
ing, though individuals Avere all but robbed of their nationality. 
But as regards America it must be remembered that each State 
has in itself a governing power, and is in fact a separate peo- 
ple. Each has its own legislature, and must have its own line 
of politics. 

The secessionists of Maryland and of Virginia may consent to 
live in obscurity ; but if this be so, who is to rule in those 
States ? From whence are to come the senators and the mem- 
bers of Congress ; the governors and attorney-generals ? From 
whence is to come the national spirit of the two States, and the 
salt that shall preserve their poUtical life ? I have never be- 
lieved that these States would succeed in secession. I have al- 
ways felt that they would be held within the Union, whatever 
might be their own wishes. But I think that they will be so 
held in a manner and after a fashion that will render any polit- 
ical vitality almost impossible till a new generation shall havo 
sprung up. In the meantime life goes on pleasantly enough in 
Baltimore, and ladies meet t<>Lr< ther, knitting stockings and 



BACK TO BOSTOX. 449 

sewing shirts for the southern soldiers, while the gentlemen 
talk southern politics and drink the health of the (southern) 
President in ambiguous terms as our Cavaliers used to drink 
the health of the king. 

During my second visit to Baltimore I w^ent over to Wash- 
ington for a day or two, and found the capital still under the 
empire of King Mud. How the elite of a nation — for the in- 
habitants of Washington consider themselves to be the elite — 
can consent to live in such a state of tln-aldora, a foreigner can- 
not understand. Were I to say that it was intended to be 
typical of the condition of the government, I might be consid- 
ered cynical ; but undoubtedly the sloughs of despond which 
were deepest in their despondency were to be found in locali- 
ties which gave an appearance of truth to such a surmise. The 
Secretary of State's office in w^hich Mr. Seward was still reign- 
ing, though with diminished glory, was divided from the Head- 
Quarters of the Commander-in-Chief, which are immediately 
opposite to it, by an opaque river which admitted of no transit. 
These buildings stand at the corner of President Square, and it 
had been long understood that any close intercourse between 
them had not been considered desirable by the occupants of 
the military side of the causeway. But the Secretary of State's 
office was altogether unapproachable without a long circuit and 
begrimed legs. The Secretary-at- War's department was, if pos- 
sible, in a worse condition. This is situated on the other side 
of the President's house, and the mud lay, if possible, thicker in 
this quarter than it did round Mr. Seward's chambers. The 
passage over Pennsylvania Avenue, immediately in front of the 
War Office, was a thing not to be attempted in those days. 
Mr. Cameron, it is true, had gone, and Mr. Stanton was installed; 
but the labour of cleansing the interior of that establishment 
had hitherto allowed no time for a glance at the exterior dirt, 
and Mr. Stanton should, perhaps, be held as excused. That the 
Navy Office should be buried in mud, and quite debarred from 
approach, was to be expected. The space immediately in front 
of Mr. Lincoln's own residence was still kept fairly clean, and I 
am happy to be able to give testimony to this effect. Long 
may it remain so. I could not, however, but think that an en- 
ergetic and careful President would have seen to the removal 
of the dirt from his own immediate neighbourhood. It was 
something that his own shoes should remain unpolluted ; but 
the foul mud always clinging to the boots and leggings of those 
by Avhom he w^as daily surrounded must, I should think, have 
been offensive to him. The entrance to the Treasury was dif- 



450 NOKTH AMERICA. 

ficult to achieve by those who had not learned by practice the 
ways of the place ; but I must confess that a tolerably clear 
passage was maintained on that side which led immediately 
down to the halls of Congress. Up at the Capitol the mud 
was again triumphant in the front of the building ; this how- 
ever Avas-not of great importance, as the legislative chambers 
of the States are always reached by the back-door. I, on this 
occasion, attempted to leave the building by the grand entrance, 
but I soon became entangled among rivers of mud and mazes 
of shifting sand. With difficulty I recovered my steps, and 
finding my way back to the building was forced to content my- 
self by an exit among the crowd of senators and representa- 
tives who were thronging down the back-stairs. 

Of dirt of all kinds it behoves Washmgton and those con- 
cerned in Washington to make themselves free. It is the Au- 
gean stables through which some American Hercules must turn 
a purifying river before the American people can justly boast 
either of their capital or of their government. As to the ma- 
terial mud, enough has been said. The presence of the army 
perhaps caused it, and the excessive quantity of rain which had 
fallen may also be taken as a fair plea. But what excuse shall 
w^e find for that other dirt ? It also had been caused by the 
presence of the army, and by that long-continued down-pour- 
ing of contracts which had fallen like Danae's golden shower 
into the laps of those who understood how to avail themselves 
of such heavenly waters. The leaders of the rebellion are hated 
in the N"orth. The names of Jefterson Davis, of Cobb, Toombs, 
and Floyd are mentioned with execration by the very children. 
This has sprung from a true and noble feeling ; from a patriot- 
ic love of national greatness and a hatred of those who, for 
small party purposes, have been w^illing to lessen the name of 
the United States. I have reverenced the feeling even when I 
have not shared it. But, in addition to this, the names of those 
also should be execrated who have robbed their country Avhen 
pretending to serve it ; who have taken its wages in the days 
of its great struggle, and at the same time have filched from 
its cofi:ers ; who have undertaken the task of steering the ship 
through the storm in order that their hands might be deep in 
the meal-tub and the bread-basket, and that they might stuff 
their own sacks with the ship's provisions. These are the men 
who must be loatlied by the nation, — whose fate must be held 
up as a warning to others before good can come ! Northern 
men and women talk of hanging Davis and his accomplices. I 
myself trust that there will be no hanging when the war is 



BACK TO BOSTON. 451 

over. I believe there will be none, for the Americans are not a 
blood-thirsty people. But if punishment of any kind be meted 
out, tlie men of the North should understand that they have 
worse offenders among them than Davis and Floyd. 

At the period of which I am now speaking, there had come 
a change over the spirit of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. Mr. Seward 
w^as still his Secretary of State, but he was, as far as outside 
observers could judge, no longer his Prime Minister. In the 
early days of the war, and up to the departure of Mr. Cameron 
from out of the cabinet, Mr. Seward had been the Minister of 
the nation. In his despatches he talks ever of We or of I. In 
every word of his official writings, of Avhich a large volume has 
been published, he shows plainly that he intends to be consid- 
ered as the man of the day, — as the hero who is to bring the 
States through their difficulties. Mr. Lincoln may be King, 
but Mr. Seward is Mayor of the Palace and carries the King in 
his pocket. From the depth of his own wisdom he undertakes 
to teach his ministers in all parts of the world, not only their 
duties, but their proper aspiration. He is equally kind to for- 
eign statesmen, and sends to them messages as though from an 
altitude which no European politician had ever reached. At 
home he has affected the Prime Minister in everything, drop- 
ping the We and using the I in a manner that has hardly made 
up by its audacity for its deficiency in discretion. It is of course 
known everywhere that he had run Mr. Lincoln very hard for 
the position of republican candidate for the Presidency. Mr. 
Lincoln beat him, and Mr. Seward is well aware that in the 
States a man has never a second chance for the Presidential 
cliair. Hence has arisen his ambition to make for himself a 
new place in the annals of American politics. Hitherto there 
has been no Prime Minister known in the Government of the 
United States. Mr. Seward has attempted a revolution in that 
matter, and has essayed to fill the situation. For awhile it al- 
most seemed that he was successful. He interfered wdth the 
army, and his interferences were endured. He took ujDon him- 
self the business of the police, and arrested men at his own will 
and pleasure. The habeas corpus was in his hand, and his 
name was current through the States as a covering authority 
for every outrage on the old laws. Sufficient craft, or perhaps 
cleverness, he possessed to organize a position which should 
give him a power greater than the power of the President; but 
he had not the genius which would enable him to hold it. He 
made foolish prophecies about the war, and talked of the tri- 
umphs which he would w^n. He wrote state papers on mat- 



452 NORTH AMERICA. 

ters which he did not understand, and gave himself the airs of 
diplomatic learning while he showed himself to be sadly igno- 
rant of the very rudiments of diplomacy. He tried to joke as 
Lord Palmerston jokes, and nobody liked his jokiog. He was 
greedy after the little appanages of power, taking from others 
who loved them as well as he did, privileges with which he 
might have dispensed. And then, lastly, he was successful in 
nothing. He had given himself out as the commander of the 
Commander-in-Chief; but then under his command nothing 
got itself done. For a month or two some men had really be- 
lieved in Mr. Seward. The policemen of the country had come 
to have an absolute trust in him, and the underlings of the 
public offices were beginning to thhik that he might be a great 
man. But then, as is ever the case with such men, there came 
suddenly a downfall. Mr. Cameron went from the cabinet, and 
everybody knew that Mr. Seward would be no longer com- 
mander of the Commander-in-Chief. His prime ministership 
was gone from him, and he sank down into the comparatively 
humble position of Minister for Foreign Aftairs. liis lettres 
de cachet no longer ran. His passport system was repealed. 
His prisoners were released. And though it is too much to 
say that writs of habeas corpus were no longer suspended, the 
effect and very meaning of the suspension was at once altered. 
When I first left Washington Mr. Seward was the only minis- 
ter of the cabinet whose name was ever mentioned with refer- 
ence to any great political measure. When I returned to 
Washington Mr. Stanton was Mr. Lincoln's leading minister, 
and, as Secretary-at-Wai*, had practically the management of 
the army and of the internal police. 

I have spoken here of Mr. Seward by name, and in my pre- 
ceding paragraphs I have alluded Avith some asperity to the 
dishonesty of certain men who had obtained political power 
under Mr. Lincoln and used it for their own dishonest purposes. 
I trust that I may not be understood as bringing any such 
charges against Mr. Seward. That such dishonesty has been 
frightfully prevalent all men know who knew any thing of 
Washington during the year 1861. Li a former chapter I have 
alluded to this more at length, stating circumstances and in 
some cases giving the names of the persons charged with of- 
fences. Whenever I have done so, I have based my statements 
on the Van Wyck Report, and the evidence therein given. 
This is the published report of a Committee appointed by the 
House of Representatives ; and as it has been before the world 
for some months without refutation, I think that I have a right 



BACK TO BOSTON. 453 

to presume it to be true.* On do less authority than this would 
I consider myself justified in bringing any such charge. Of 
Mr. Seward's incompetency I have heard very much among 
American politicians ; much also of his ambition. With worse 
offences than these I have not heard him charged. 

At the period of which I am writing, February, 1862, the 
long list of military successes which attended the northern 
army through the late winter and early spring had commenced. 
Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river, had first been taken, and 
after that, Fort Donelson on the Cumberland river, also in the 
State of Tennessee. Price had been driven out of Missouri 
into Arkansas by General Curtis, acting under General Hal- 
leck's orders. The chief body of the Confederate army in the 
West had abandoned the fortified position which they had 
long held at Bowling Green, in the south-western district of 
Kentucky. Roanoke Island, on the coast of North Carolina, 
had been taken by General Burnside's expedition, and a belief 
had begun to manifest itself in Washington that the army of 
the Potomac was really about to advance. It is impossible to 
explain in what way tlie renewed confidence of the northern 
party showed itself, or how one learned that the hopes of the 
secessionists were waxing dim; but it was so; and even a 
stranger became aware of the general feeling as clearly as 
though it were a defined and established fact. In the early 
part of the winter, when I reached Washington, the feeling 
ran all the other way. Northern men did not say that they 
were despondent ; they did not Avith spoken words express 
difiidence as to their success; but their looks betrayed difii- 
dence, and the moderation of their self-assurance almost amount- 
ed to despondency. In the capital the parties were very much 
divided. The old inhabitants were either secessionists or in- 
fluenced by " secession proclivities," as the word went ; but 
the men of the government and of the two houses of Congress 
were, with a few exceptions, of course northern. It should be 
understood that these parties were at variance with each other 
on almost every point as to which men can disagree. In our 
civil war it may be presumed that all Englishmen were at any 
rate anxious for England. They desired and fought for differ- 

* I ought perhaps to state that General Fremont has published an answer 
to the charges preferred against him. That answer refers chiefly to matters 
of military capacity or incapacity, as to which I have expressed no opinion. 
General Fremont does allude to the accusations made against him regarding 
the building of the forts ;•— but in doing so he seems to me rather to admit 
than to deny the facts as stated by the Committee. 



454 NORTH AMERICA. 

ent modes of government ; but each party was equally English 
m its ambition. In the States there is the hatred of a diiferent 
nationality added to the rancour of different politics. The 
Southerners desire to be a people of themselves, — to divide 
themselves by every possible mark of division from New En- 
gland ; to be as little akin to New York as they are to Lon- 
don, — or if possible less so. Their habits, they say, are differ- 
ent ; their education, their beliefs, their propensities, their very 
virtues and vices are not the education, or the beliefs, or the 
propensities, or the virtues and vices of the North. The bond 
that ties them to the North is to them a Mezentian marriage, 
and they hate their northern spouses with a Mezentian hatred. 
They would be anything sooner than citizens of the United 
States. They see to what Mexico has come, and the republics 
of Central America; but the prospect of even that degradation 
is less bitter to them than a share in the glory of the stars and 
stripes. Better, with them, to reign in hell than serve in heav- 
en ! It is not only in politics that they Avill be beaten, if they 
be beaten, — as one party with us may be beaten by another ; 
but they will be beaten as we should be beaten if France an- 
nexed us, and directed that we should live under French rule. 
Let an Englishman digest and retilize that idea, and he will 
comprehend, tlie feelings of a southern gentleman as he con- 
templates the probability that his State will be brought back 
into the Union. And the northern feeling is as strong. The 
northern man has founded his national ambition on the territo- 
rial greatness of his nation. He has panted for new lands, and 
for still extended boundaries. The western world has opened 
her arms to him, and has seemed to welcome him as her only 
lord. British America has tempted him towards the north, 
and Mexico has been as a prey to him on the south. He has 
made maps of his empire, including all the continent, and has 
preached the Monroe doctrine as though it had been decreed 
by the gods. He has told the world of his increasing millions, 
and has never yet known his store to diminish. He has pawed 
in the valley, and rejoiced in his strength. He has said among 
the trumpets, Ha, ha ! He has boasted aloud in his pride, and 
called on all men to look at his glory. And now shall he be 
divided and shorn ? Shall he be hemmed in from his ocean 
and shut off from his rivers ? Shall he haA^e a hook run into 
his nostrils, and a thorn driven into his jaw ? Shall men say 
that his day is over, when he has hardly yet tasted the full cup 
of his success ? Has his young life been a d'ream, and not a 
truth? Shall he never reach that giant manhood which the 



BACK TO BOSTON. 455 

growth of his boyish years has promised liira ? If the South 
goes from him, he will be divided, shorn, and hemmed in. 
The hook will have pierced his nose, and the thorn wdll fester 
in his jaw. Men will taunt him wdth his former boastings, 
and he will awake to find himself but a mortal among mortals. 

Such is the light in which the struggle is regarded by the 
two ^parties, and such the hopes and feelings which have been 
engendered. It may therefore be surmised with what amount 
of neighbourly love secessionist and northern neighbours re- 
garded each other in such towns as Baltimore and Washing- 
ton. Of course there was hatred of the deepest dye ; of course 
there w^ere muttered curses, or curses which sometimes Avere 
not simply muttered. Of course there were Avretchedness, 
heart-burnings, and fearful divisions in families. That, perhaps, 
w^as the worst of all. The daughter's husband w^ould be in 
the northern ranks, while the son w^as fighting in the South ; 
or two sons w^ould hold equal rank in the two .'wmies, some- 
times sending to each other frightful threats of personal venge- 
ance. Old friends w^ould meet each other in the street, pass- 
ing without speaking ; or, worse still, would utter words of in- 
sult for w^hich payment is to be demanded when a southern 
gentleman may again be allowed to quarrel in his own defence. 

And yet society w^ent on. Women still smiled, and men 
Avere happy to w^hom such smiles were given. Cakes and ale 
were going, and ginger was still hot in the mouth. When 
many w^ere together no words of unhappiness were heard. It 
was at those small meetings of two or three that women would 
weep instead of smiling, and that men would run their hands 
through their hair and sit in silence, thinking of their ruined 
hopes and divided children. 

I have spoken of southern hopes and northern fears, and have 
endeavoured to explain the feelings of each party. For myself 
I think that the Southerners have been wrong in their hopes, 
and that those of the North have been wrong in their fears. It 
is not better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. Of course a 
southern gentleman wdll not admit the premises w^iich are here 
by me taken for granted. The hell to which I allude is, the sad 
position of a low and debased nation. Such, I think, will be the 
fate of the Gulf States, if they succeed in obtaining secession, — 
of a low and debased nation, or, worse still, of many low and 
debased nations. They will have lost their cotton monopoly 
by the competition created during the period of the war, and 
will have no material of greatness on which either to found 
tiiemselvGs or to flourish. That they had much to bear when 



456 NOKTH AMERICA. 

linked with the North, much to endure on account of that 
slavery from which it was all but impossible that they should 
disentangle themselves, may probably be true. But so have all 
political parties among all free nations much to bear from polit- 
ical opponents, and yet other free nations do not go to pieces. 
Had it been possible that the slave-owners and slave properties 
should have been scattered in parts through all the States and 
not congregated in the South, the slave party would have main- 
tained itself as other parties do ; but in such case, as a matter 
of course, it would not have thought of secession. It has been 
the close vicinity of slave-owners to each other, the fact that 
their lands have been coterminous, that theirs was especially a 
cotton district, which has tempted them to secession. They 
have been tempted to secession, and will, as I think, still achieve 
it in those Gulf States, — much to their misfortune. 

And the fears of the North are, I think, equally wrong. That 
they will bcrdeceived as to that Monroe doctrine is no doubt 
more than jDrobable. That ambition for an entire continent 
under one rule will not, I should say, be gratified. But not on 
that account need the nation be less great, or its civilization less 
extensive. Tliat hook in its nose and that thorn in its jaw Avill, 
after all, be but a hook of the imagination and an ideal thorn. 
Do not all great men suffer such ere their greatness be estab- 
lished and acknowledged? There is scope enough for all that 
manhood can do between the Atlantic and the Pacific, even 
though those hot, swampy cotton-fields be taken away ; even 
though the snows of the British provinces be denied to them. 
And as for those rivers and that sea-board, the Americans of 
the North Avill have lost much of their old energy and usual 
force of will, if any southern Confederacy be allowed to deny 
their right of way or to stop their commercial enterprises. I 
believe that the South Avill be badly off without the North; but 
I feel certain that the North Avill never miss the South Avhen 
once the wounds to her pride have been closed. 

From Washington I journeyed back to Boston through the 
cities which I had visited in coming thither, and stayed again 
on my route for a few days at Baltimore, at Philadelphia, and 
at New York. At each town there were those whom I now 
regarded almost as old friends, and as the time of my departure 
drew near I felt a sorrow that I was not to be allowed to stay 
longer. As the general result of my sojourn in the country, I 
must declare that I was always happy and comfortable in the 
eastern cities, and generally unhappy and uncomfortable in the 
West. I had previously been inclined to think that I should 



BACK TO BOSTOI^. 457 

like the roughness of the West, and that in the East I should 
encounter an arrogance which woujd have kept me always on 
the verge of hot water ; but in bo^i these surmises I found my- 
self to have been wrong. And I think that most English trav- 
ellers would come to the same conclusion. The western people 
do not mean to be harsh or uncivil, but they do not make them- 
selves pleasant. In all the eastern cities, — I speak of the east- 
ern cities north of Washington, — a society may be found which 
must be esteemed as agreeable by Englishmen who like clever 
genial men, and who love clever pretty women. 

I was forced to pass twice again over the road between New 
York and Boston, as the packet by which I intended to leave 
America was fixed to sail from the former port. I had prom- 
ised myself, and had promised others, that I Avould spend in 
Boston the last week of my sojourn in the States, and this wa^ 
a promise which I was by no means inclined to break. If there 
be a gratification in this world Avhich has no alloy, it is that of 
going to an assured welcome. The belief that men's arms and 
hearts are open to receive one, — and the arms and hearts of 
women, too, as far as they allow themselves to open them, — is 
the salt of the earth, the sole remedy against sea-sickness, the 
only cure for the tedium of railways, the one preservative amidst 
all the miseries and fatigue of travel. These matters are private, 
and should hardly be told of in a book ; but in writing of the 
States, I should not do justice to my own convictions of the 
country if I did not say how pleasantly social intercourse there 
will ripen into friendship, and how full of love that friendship 
may become. I became enamoured of Boston at last. Beacon 
Street was very pleasant to me, and the view over Boston Com- 
mon was dear to my eyes. Even the State House, with its great 
yellow-painted dome, became sightly ; and the sunset over the 
western waters that encompass the city beats all other sunsets 
that I have seen. 

During my last week there the world of Boston was moving 
itself on sleighs. There was not a wheel to be seen in the town. 
The omnibuses and public carriages had been dismounted from 
their axles and put themselves upon snow runners, and the pri- 
vate world had taken out its winter carriages, and wrapped it- 
self up in bufialo robes. Men now spoke of the coming thaw 
as of a misfortune which must come, but which a kind Provi- 
dence might perhaps postpone, — as we all, in short, speak of 
death. In the morning the snow would have been hardened 
by the night's frost, and men Avould look happy and contented. 
By an hour after noon the streets would be all wet, and the 

U 



458 NORTH AMEEICA. 

ground would be slushy and men would look gloomy and speak 
of speedy dissolution. There were those who would always 
prophesy that the next day«would see the snow converted into 
one dull, dingy river. Such I regarded as seers of tribulation, 
and endeavoured with all my mind to disbelieve their inter- 
jDretations of the signs. That sleighing was excellent fun. For 
myself I must own that I hardly saw the best of it at Boston, 
for the coming of the end was already at hand when I arrived 
there, and the fresh beauty of the hard snow was gone. More- 
over when I essayed to show my prowess with a pair of horses 
on the established course for such equipages, the beasts ran 
away, knowing that I was not practised in the use of snow 
chariots, and brought me to grief and shame. There was a 
lady with me on the sleigh, whom, for a while, I felt that I was 
doomed to consign to a snowy grave, — whom I would willing- 
ly have overturned into a drift of snow, so as to avoid worse 
consequences, had I only known how to do so. But Provi- 
dence, even though without curbs and assisted only by simple 
snaffles, did at last prevail ; and I brought the sleigh, horses, 
and lady alive back to Boston, whether with or without j^er- 
manent injury I have never yet ascertained. 

At last the day of tribulation came, and the snow was picked 
up and carted out of Boston. Gangs of men, standing shoulder 
to shoulder, were at work along the chief streets, picking, shov- 
elling, and disposing of the dirty blocks. Even then the snow 
seemed to be nearly a foot thick ; but it was dirty, rough, half- 
melted in some places, though hard as stone in others. The 
labour and cost of cleansing the city in this way must be very 
great. The people were at it as I left, and I felt that the day 
of tribulation had in truth come. 

Farewell to thee, thou western Athens ! When I have for- 
gotten thee my right hand shall have forgotten its cunning, and 
my heart forgotten its pulses. Let us look at the list of names 
with which Boston has honoured itself in our days, and then 
ask what other town of the same size has done more. Pres- 
cott, Bancroft, Motley, Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Dana, 
Agassiz, Holmes, Hawthorne ! Who is there among us in En- 
gland who has not been the better for these men ? Who does 
not owe to some of them a debt of gratitude ? In whose ears 
are not their names familiar? It is a bright galaxy and far 
extended, for so small a city. What city has done better than 
this? All these men, save one, are now alive and in the full 
possession of their powers. What other town of the same size 
has done as well in the same short space of time ? It may be 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 459 

that this is the Augustine sera of Boston, — its Elizabethan time. 
If SO, I am thankful that my steps have wandered thither at 
such a period. 

While I was at Boston I had the sad privilege of attending 
the funeral of President Felton, the head of Harvard College. 
A few months before I had seen him a strong man, apparently 
in perfect health and in the pride of life. When I reached Bos- 
ton, I heard of his death. He also was an accomplished schol- 
ar, and as a Grecian has left few behind him who were his 
equals. At his installation as President, four ex-Presidents of 
Harvard College assisted. Whether they were all present at 
his funeral I do not know, but I do know that they were all 
still living. These are Mr. Quincy, who is now over ninety; 
Mr. Sparks; Mr. Everett, the well-known orator; and Mr. Walk- 
er. They all reside in Boston or its neighbourhood, and will 
probably all assist at the installation of another President. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

It is, I presume, universally known that the citizens of the 
Western American colonies of Great Britain which revolted, de- 
clared themselves to be free from British dominion by an Act 
which they called the Declaration of Independence. This was 
done on the 4th of July, 1776, and was signed by delegates from 
the thirteen colonies, or States as they then called themselves. 
These delegates in this document declare themselves to be the rep- 
resentatives of the United States of America in general Congress 
assembled. The opening and close of this declaration have in 
them much that is grand and striking ; the greater part of it, how- 
ever, is given up to enumerating, in paragraph after paragraph, 
the sins committed by George HI. against the colonies. Poor 
George III. ! There is no one now to say a good word for him ; 
but of all those who have spoken ill of him, this declaration is the 
loudest in its censure. 

In the following year, on the 15th November, 1777, were drawn 
up the Articles of Confederation between the States, by which it 
was then intended that a sufficient bond and compact should be 
made for their future joint existence and preservation. A refer- 
ence to this document, which, together with the Declaration of In- 
dependence and the subsequently framed Constitution of the Unit- 
ed States, is given in the Appendix, will show how slight was the 



460 NORTH AMERICA. 

then intended bond of union between the States. The second ar- 
ticle declares that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and 
independence. The third article avows that *' the said States here- 
by severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other 
for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their 
mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each oth- 
er against all force offered to, or attacks made upon, them, or any 
of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other 
pretext whatever." And the third article, " the better to secure 
and perpetuate mutual friendship," declares that the free citizens 
of one State shall be free citizens of another. From this it is, I 
think, manifest that no idea of one united nation had at that lime 
been received and adopted by the citizens of the States. The ar- 
ticles then go on to define the way in which Congress shall assem- 
ble and what shall be its powers. This Congress was to exercise 
the authority of a national Government rather than perform the 
work of a national Parliament. It was intended to be executive 
rather than legislative. It was to consist of delegates, the very 
number of which within certain limits was to be left to the option 
of the individual States, and to this Congress was to be confided 
certain duties and privileges, which could not be performed or ex- 
ercised separately by the Governments of the individual States. 
One special article, the eleventh, enjoins that " Canada, acceding 
to the Confederation, and joining in the measures of the United 
States, shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of 
this Union ; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same 
unless such admission be agreed to by nine States." I mention this 
to show how strong was the expectation at that time that Canada 
also would revolt from England. Up to this day few Americans 
can understand why Canada has declined to join her lot to them. 
But the compact between the different States made by the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation, and the mode of national procedure therein 
enjoined, were found to be inefficient for the wants of a people, 
who to be great must be united in fact as well as in name. The 
theory of the most democratic among the Americans of that day 
was in favour of self-government carried to an extreme. Self-gov- 
ernment was the Utopia which they had determined to realize, 
and they were unwilling to diminish the reality of the self-govern- 
ment of the individual States by any centralization of power in one 
head, or in one Parliament, or in one set of ministers for the na- 
tion. For ten years, from 1777 to 1787, the attempt was made; 
but then it was found that a stronger bond of nationality was in- 
dispensable, if any national greatness was to be regarded as desir- 



THE CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 461 

able. Indeed, all manner of failure had attended the mode of na- 
tional action ordained by the Articles of Confederation. I am not 
attempting to write a history of the United States, and will not 
therefore trouble my readers with historic details, which are not 
of value unless put forward with historic weight. The fact of the 
failure is however admitted, and the present written constitution 
of the United States, which is the splendid result of that failure, 
was " Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States 
present."* Twelve States were present, — Rhode Island apparently 
having had no representative on the occasion, — on the 17th Sep- 
tember, 1787, and in the twelfth year of the Independence of the 
United States. 

I call the result splendid, seeing that under this constitution so 
written a nation has existed for three quarters of a century, and 
has grown in numbers, power, and wealth till it has made itself 
the political equal of the other greatest nations of the earth. And 
it cannot be said that it has so grown in spite of the constitution," 
or by ignoring the constitution. Hitherto the laws there laid 
down for the national guidance have been found adequate for the 
great purpose assigned to them, and have done all that which the 
framers of them hoped that they might eiFect. We all know what 
has been the fate of the constitutions which were written through- 
out the French revolution for the use of France. We all, here ia 
England, have the same ludicrous conception of Utopian theories 
of government framed by philosophical individuals who imagine 
that they have learned from books a perfect system of managing 
nations. To produce such theories is especially the part of a 
Frenchman ; to disbelieve in them is especially the part of an En- 
glishman. But in the States a system of government has been 
produced under a written constitution, in which no Englishman 
can disbelieve, and which every Frenchman must envy. It has 
done its work. The people have been free, well-educated, and po- 
litically great. Those among us who are most inclined at the 
present moment to declare that the institutions of the United 
States have failed, can at any rate only declare that they have fail- 
ed in their finality ; that they have shown themselves to be insuf- 
ficient to carry on the nation in its advancing strides through all 
times. They cannot deny that an amount of success and prosper- 

* It must not, however, be supposed that by this "doing in convention," 
the constitution became an accepted fact. It simply amounted to the adop- 
tion of a proposal of the constitution. The constitution itself was formally 
adopted by the people in conventions held in their separate State capitals. It 
was agreed to by the people in 1788, and came into operation in 1789. 



462 NORTH AMERICA. 

ity, much greater than the nation even expected for itself, has been 
achieved under this constitution and in connection with it. If it 
be so they cannot disbelieve in it. Let those who now say that it 
is insufficient, consider what their prophecies regarding it would 
have been had they been called on to express their opinions con- 
cerning it when it was proposed in 1787> If the future as it has 
since come forth had then been foretold for it, would not such a 
prophecy have been a prophecy of success ? That constitution is 
now at the period of its hardest trial, and at this moment one may 
hardly dare to speak of it with triumph ; but looking at the na- 
tion even in its present position, I think I am justified in saying 
that its constitution is one in which no Englishman can disbelieve. 
When I also say that it is one which every Frenchman must envy, 
perhaps I am improperly presuming that Frenchmen could not 
look at it with Englishmen's eyes. 

When the constitution came to be written, a man had arisen in 
the States who was peculiarly suited for the work in hand; he 
was one of those men to whom the world owes much, and of 
whom the world in general knows but little. This was Alexan- 
der Hamilton, who alone on the part of the great State of New 
York signed the constitution of the United States. The other 
States sent two, three, four, or more delegates ; New York sent 
Hamilton alone ; but in sending him New York sent more to the 
constitution than all the other States together. I should be hard- 
ly saying too much for Hamilton if I were to declare that all those 
parts of the constitution emanated from him in which permanent 
political strength has abided. And yet his name has not been 
spread abroad widely in men's mouths. Of Jefferson, Franklin, 
and Madison, we have all heard ; our children speak of them and 
they are household words in the nursery of history. Of Hamil- 
ton however it may, I believe, be said that he was greater than 
any of those. 

Without going with minuteness into the early contests of de- 
mocracy in the United States, I think I may say that there soon 
arose two parties, each probably equally anxious in the cause of 
freedom, one of which was conspicuous for its French predilec- 
tions, and the other for its English aptitudes. It was the period 
of the French revolution, — the time when the French revolution 
had in it as yet something of promise, and had not utterly dis- 
graced itself To many in America the French theory of democ- 
racy not unnaturally endeared itself, and foremost among these 
was Thomas Jefferson. He was the father of those politicians in 
the States who have since taken the name of democrats, and in 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 463 

accordance with whose theory it has come to pass that everythino- 
has been referred to the universal suffrage of the people. James 
Madison, who succeeded Jefferson as President, was a pupil in this 
school, as indeed have been most of the Presidents of the United 
States. At the head of the other party, from which through va- 
rious denominations have sprung those who now call themselves 
republicans, was Alexander Hamilton. I believe I may say that 
all the political sympathies of George AVashington were with the 
same school. Washington, however, was rather a man of feeling 
and of action, than of theoretical policy or speculative opinion. 
When the constitution was written, Jefferson was in France, hav- 
ing been sent thither as minister from the United States, and he 
therefore was debarred from concerning himself personally in the 
matter. His views, however, were represented by Madison, and 
it is now generally understood that the Constitution, as it stands, 
is the joint work of Madison and Hamilton.* The democratic 
bias, of which it necessarily contains much, and without wdiich it 
could not have obtained the consent of the people, was furnished 
by Madison ; but tlie conservative elements, of which it possesses 
much more than superficial observers of the American fornt of 
government are wont to believe, came from Hamilton. 

The very preamble of the constitution at once declares that the 
people of the different States do hereby join themselves together 
with the view of forming themselves into one nation. "We, the 
people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, 
establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish 
this constitution for the United States of America." Here a great 
step was made towards centralization, — towards one national gov- 
ernment and the binding together of the States into one nation. 
But from that time down to the present, the contest has been go- 
ing on, sometimes openly and sometimes only within the minds of 
men, between the still alleged sovereignty of the individual States 
and the acknowledged sovereignty of the central Congress and cen- 
tral Government. The disciples of Jefferson, — even though they 
have not known themselves to be his disciples, — have been carry- 
ing on that fight for State rights which has ended in secession ; 
and the disciples of Hamilton, — certainly not knowing themselves 
to be his disciples, — have been making that stand for central gov- 

* It should, perhaps, be explained that the views of Madison were origin- 
ally not opposed to those of Hamilton. Madison, however, gradually adopt- 
ed the policy of Jefferson, — his policy rather than his philosophy. 



464 NORTH AMERICA. 

emment, and for the one acknowledged republic, which is now 
at work in opposing secession, and which, even though secession 
should to some extent be accomplished, will, we may hope, never- 
theless, and not the less on account of such secession, conquer and 
put down the spirit of democracy. 

The political contest of parties which is being waged now, and 
which has been waged throughout the history of the United States, 
has been pursued on one side in support of that idea of an undi- 
vided nationality of which I have spoken, — of a nationality in 
which the interests of a part should be esteemed as the interests 
of the whole ; and on the other side it has been pursued in oppo- 
sition to that idea. I will not here go into the interminable ques- 
tion of slavery, — though it is on that question that the southern 
or democratic States have most loudly declared their own sover- 
eign rights and their aversion to national interference. Were I to 
do so I should fail in my present object of explaining the nature 
of the constitution of the United States. But I protest against 
any argument which shall be used to show that the constitution 
has failed, because it has allowed slavery to produce the present 
division among the States. I myself think that the Southern or 
Gulf States will go. I will not pretend to draw the exact line, or 
to say how many of them are doomed ; but I believe that South 
Carolina with Georgia, and perhaps five or six others, will be ex- 
truded from the Union. But their very extrusion will be a polit- 
ical success, and will, in fact, amount to a virtual acknowledgment 
in the body of the Union of the truth of that system for which the 
conservative republican party has contended. If the North obtain 
the power of settling that question of boundary, the abandonment 
of those southern States will be a success, even though the privi- 
lege of retaining them be the very point for which the North is 
now in arms. 

The first clause of the constitution declares that all the legis- 
lative powers granted by the constitution shall be vested in a 
Congress, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Repre- 
sentatives. The House of Representatives is to be rechosen every 
two years, and shall be elected by the people, such persons in each 
State having votes for the national Congress as have votes for the 
legislature of their own States. If therefore South Carolina should 
choose — as she has chosen — to declare that the electors of her 
own legislature shall possess a property qualification, the electors 
of members of Congress from South Carolina must also have that 
qualification. In Massachusetts universal suffrage now prevails, 
although it is not long since a low property qualification prevailed 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 465 

even in Massachusetts. It therefore follows that members of the 
House of Representatives in Congress need by no means be all 
chosen on the same principle. As a fact, universal suffrage* and 
vote by ballot, that is by open voting papers, prevail in the States, 
but they do not so prevail by virtue of any enactment of the con- 
stitution. The laws of the States, however, require that the voter 
shall have been a resident in the State for some period, and gener- 
ally either deny the right of voting to negroes, or so hamper that 
privilege that practically it amounts to the same thing. 

The Senate of the United States is composed of two senators 
from each State. These senators are chosen for six years, and 
are elected in a manner which shows the conservative tendency of 
the constitution with more signification than perhaps any other 
rule which it contains. This branch of Congress, which, as I shall 
presently endeavour to show, is by far the more influential of the 
two, is not in any way elected by the people. " The Senate of the 
United States shall be composed of two senators from each State, 
chosen by the legislature thereof^ for six years, and each senator shall 
have one voice." The Senate sent to Congress is therefore elected 
by the State legislatures. Each State legislature has two Houses ; 
and the senators sent from that State to Congress are either cho- 
sen by vote of the two Houses voting together — which is, I believe, 
the mode adopted in most States, or are voted for in the two 
Houses separately — in which cases, when different candidates 
have been nominated, the two Houses confer by committees and 
settle the matter between them. The conservative purpose of the 
constitution is here sufficiently evident. The intention has been 
to take the election of the senators away from the people, and to 
confide it to that body in each State which may be regarded as 
containing its best trusted citizens. It removes the senators far 
away from the democratic element, and renders them liable to the 
necessity of no popular canvas. Nor am I aware that the consti- 
tution has failed in keeping the ground which it intended to hold 
in this matter. On some points its selected rocks and chosen 
standing ground have slipped from beneath its feet, owing to the 
weakness of words in defining and making solid the intended pro- 

* Perhaps the better word would have been manhood suffrage ; and even 
that word should be taken with certain restrictions. Aliens, minors, con- 
victs, and men who pay no taxes cannot vote. In some States none can vote 
unless they can read and write. In some there is a property qualification. 
In all there are special restrictions against negroes. There is in none an ab- 
solutely universal suffrage. But I keep the name as it best expresses to us 
in England the system of franchise which has practically come to prevail in 
the United States. 

U2 



466 NORTH ABIERICA. 

hibitions against democracy. The wording of the constitution has 
been regarded by the people as sacred; but the people has consid- 
ered itself justified in opposing the spirit as long as it revered the 
letter of the constitution. And this was natural. For the letter 
of the constitution can be read by all men ; but its spirit can be 
understood comparatively but by few. As regards the election of 
the senators, I believe that it has been fairly made by the legis- 
latures of the different States. I have not heard it alleged that 
members of the State legislatures have been frequently constrained 
by the outside popular voice to send this or that man as senator 
to Washington. It was clearly not the intention of those who 
wrote the constitution that they should be so constrained. But 
the senators themselves in Washington have submitted to re- 
straint. On subjects in which the people are directly interested 
they submit to instructions from the legislatures which have sent 
them as to the side on which they shall vote, and justify them- 
selves in voting against their convictions by the fact that they have 
received such instructions. Such a practice, even with the mem- 
bers of a House which has been directly returned by popular elec- 
tion, is, I think, false to the intention of the system. It has clearly 
been intended that confidence should be put in the chosen candi- 
date for the term of his duty, and that the electors are to be bound 
in the expression of their opinion by his sagacity and patriotism 
for that term. A member of a representative House so chosen, 
who votes at the bidding of his constituency in opposition to his 
convictions, is manifestly false to his charge, and may be presumed 
to be thus false in deference to his own personal interests, and 
with a view to his own future standing with his constituents. 
Pledges before election may be fair, because a pledge given is after 
all but the answer to a question asked. A voter may reasonably 
desire to know a candidate's opinion on any matter of political in- 
terest before he votes for or against him. The representative 
when returned should be free from the necessity of further pledges. 
But if this be true with a House elected by popular suffrage, how 
much more than true must it be with a chamber collected together 
as the Senate of the United States is collected ! Nevertheless it 
is the fact that many senators, especially those who have been sent 
to the House as democrats, do allow the State legislatures to dic- 
tate to them their votes, and that they do hold themselves absolved 
from the personal responsibility of their votes by such dictation. 
This is one place in which the rock which was thought to have 
been firm has slipped away, and the sands of democracy have made 
their way through. But with reference to this it is always in the 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 467 

power of the Senate to recover its own ground, and re-establish its 
own dignity ; to the people in this matter the words of the consti- 
tution give no authority, and all that is necessary for the recovery 
of the old practice is a more conservative tendency throughout 
the country generally. That there is such a conservative tendency 
no one can doubt ; the fear is whether it may not work too quick- 
ly and go too far. 

In speaking of these instructions given to senators at Washing- 
ton, I should explain that such instructions are not given by all 
States, nor are they obeyed by all senators. Occasionally they 
are made in the form of requests, the word " instruct*' being pur- 
posely laid aside. Requests of the same kind are also made to 
representatives, who, as they are not returned by the State legisla- 
tures, are not considered to be subject to such instructions. The 
form used is as follows, " We instruct our senators and request 
our representatives," &c. &c. 

The senators are elected for six years, but the same Senate does 
not sit entire throughout that term. The whole chamber is di- 
vided into three equal portions or classes, and a portion goes out 
at the end of every second year ; so that a third of the Senate 
comes in afresh with every new House of Representatives. The 
Vice-President of the United States, who is elected with the Pres- 
ident, and who is not a senator by election from any State, is the 
ex-offieio President of the Senate. Should the President of the 
United States vacate his seat by death or otherwise, the Vice- 
President becomes President of the United States ; and in such 
case the Senate elects its own President pro tempore. 

In speaking of the Senate, I must point out a matter to which 
the constitution does not allude, but which is of the gravest mo- 
ment in the political fabric of the nation. Each State sends two 
senators to Congress. These two are sent altogether independent- 
ly of the population which they represent, or of the number of 
members which the same State supplies to the Lower House. 
When the constitution was framed, Delaware was to send one 
member to the House of Representatives, and Pennsylvania eight ; 
nevertheless, each of these States sent two senators. It would 
seem strange that a young people, commencing business as a na- 
tion on a basis intended to be democratic, should consent to a sys- 
tem so directly at variance with the theory of popular representa- 
tion. It reminds one of the old days when Yorkshire returned 
two members, and Rutlandshire two also. And the discrepancy 
has greatly increased as young States have been added to the 
Union, while the old States have increased in population. New 



468 NORTH AMERICA. 

York, with a population of about 4,000,000, and with thirty-three 
members in the House of Eepresentatives, sends two senators to 
Congress. The new State of Oregon, with a population of 50,000 
or 60,000, and with one member in the House of Representatives, 
sends also two senators to Congress. But though it would seem 
that in such a distribution of legislative power, the young nation 
was determined to preserve some of the old fantastic traditions of 
the mother-country which it had just repudiated ; the fact, I be- 
lieve, is that this system, apparently so opposed to all democratic 
tendencies, was produced and specially insisted upon by democracy 
itself. Where would be the State sovereignty and individual ex- 
istence of Rhode Island and Delaware, unless they could maintain, 
in at least one House of Congress, their State equality with that of 
all other States in the Union ? In those early days, when the Con- 
stitution was being framed, there was nothing to force the small 
States into a Union with those whose populations preponderated. 
Each State was sovereign in its municipal system, having pre- 
served the boundaries of the old colony, together with the liberties 
and laws given to it under its old colonial charter. A union 
might be, and no doubt was, desirable ; but it was to be a union 
of sovereign States, each retaining equal privileges in that union, 
and not a fusion of the different populations into one homogeneous 
whole. No State was willing to abandon its own individuality, 
and least of all were the small States willing to do so. It was 
therefore ordained that the House of Representatives should rep- 
resent the people, and that the Senate should represent the States. 

From that day to the present time the arrangement of which I 
am speaking has enabled the democratic or southern party to con- 
tend at a great advantage with the republicans of the North. 
When the constitution was founded, the seven northern States — 
I call those northern which are now free-soil States, and those 
southern in which the institution of slavery now prevails — the 
seven northern States were held to be entitled by their population 
to send thirty-five members to the House of Representatives, and 
they sent fourteen members to the Senate. The six southern 
States were entitled to thirty members in the Lower House, and 
to twelve senators. Thus the proportion was about equal for the 
North and South. But now, — or rather in 1860, when secession 
commenced, the northern States, owing to the increase of popula- 
tion in the North, sent one hundred and fifty representatives to 
Congress, having nineteen States and thirty-eight senators ; where- 
as the South, with fifteen States and thirty senators, was entitled 
by its population to only ninety representatives, although by a 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 469 

special rule in its favour, which I will presently explain, it was in 
fact allowed a greater number of representatives in proportion to 
its population than the North. Had an equal balance been pre- 
served, the South, with its ninety representatives in the Lower 
House, would have but twenty-three senators, instead of thirty, in 
the Upper.* But these numbers indicate to us the recovery of 
political influence in the North, rather than the pride of the pow- 
er of the South ; for the South, in its palmy days, had much more 
in its favour than I have above described as its position in 1860. 
Kansas had then just become a free-soil State, after a terrible 
struggle, and shortly previous to that Oregon and Minnesota, also 
free States, had been added to the Union. Up to that date the 
slave States sent thirty senators to Congress, and the free States 
only thirty-two. In addition to this when Texas was annexed 
and converted into a State, a clause was inserted into the Act giv- 
ing authority for the future subdivision of that State into four dif- 
ferent States as its population should increase, thereby enabling 
the South to add senators to its own party from time to time, as 
the northern States might increase in number. 

And here I must explain, in order that the nature of the con- 
test may be understood, that the. senators from the South main- 
tained themselves ever in a compact body, voting together, true to 
each other, disciplined as a party, understanding the necessity of 
yielding in small things in order that their general line of policy 
might be maintained. But there was no such system, no such ob- 
servance of political tactics among the senators of the North. In- 
deed, they appear to have had no general line of politics, having 
been divided among themselves on various matters. Many had 
strong southern tendencies, and many more were willing to obtain 
official power by the help of southern votes. There was no great 
bond of union among them, as slavery was among the senators 
from the South. And thus, from these causes, the power of the 
Senate and the power of the Government fell into the hands of the 
southern party. 

I am aware that in going into these matters here I am depart- 
ing somewhat from the subject of which this chapter is intended to 
treat ; but I do not know that I could explain in any shorter way 
the manner in which those rules of the constitution have worked 
by which the composition of the Senate is fixed. That State basis, 

* It is worthy of note that the new northern and western States have been 
brought into the Union by natural increase and the spread of population. 
But this has not been so with the new southern States. Louisiana and Flor- 
ida were purchased, and Texas was — annexed. 



470 NORTH AMERICA. 

as opposed to a basis of population, in the Upper House of Con- 
gress, has been the one great political weapon, both of offence and 
defence, in the hands of the democratic party. And yet I am not 
prepared to deny that great wisdom was shown in the framing of 
the constitution of the Senate. It was the object of none of the 
politicians then at work to create a code of rules for the entire 
governance of a single nation such as is England or France. Nor, 
had any American politician of the time so desired, would he have 
had reasonable hope of success. A federal union of separate sov- 
ereign States was the necessity, as it was also the desire, of all 
those who were concerned in the American policy of the day ; 
and I think it may be understood and maintained that no such 
federal union would have been just, or could have been accepted 
by the smaller States, which did not in some direct way recognize 
their equality with the larger States. It is moreover to be ob- 
served, that in this, as in all matters, the claims of the minority 
were treated with indulgence. No ordinance of the constitution 
is made in a niggardly spirit. It would seem as though they who 
met together to do the work had been actuated by no desire for 
selfish preponderance or individual influence. No ambition to 
bind close by words which shall be exacting as well as exact is 
apparent, A very broad power of interpretation is left to those 
who were to be the future interpreters of the written document. 

It is declared that " Representation and direct taxes shall be 
apportioned among the several States which may be included 
within this Union according to their respective numbers," there- 
by meaning that representation and taxation in the several States 
shall be adjusted according to the population. This clause or- 
dains that throughout all the States a certain amount of popula- 
tion shall return a member to the Lower House of Congress, — say 
one member to 100,000 persons, as is I believe about the present 
proportion, — and that direct taxation shall be levied according to 
the number of representatives. If New York return thirty-three 
members and Kansas one, on New York shall be levied, for the 
purposes of the United States' revenue, thirty-three times as much 
direct taxation as on Kansas. This matter of direct taxation was 
not then, nor has it been since, matter of much moment. No di- 
rect taxation has hitherto been levied in the United States for na- 
tional purposes. But the time has now come when this proviso 
will be a terrible stumbling-block in the way. 

But before we go into that matter of taxation, I must explain 
how the South was again favoured with reference to its represent- 
ation. As a matter of course no slaves, or even negroes — no men 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 471 

of colour — were to vote in the southern States. Therefore, one 
would say, that in counting up the people with reference to the 
number of the representatives, the coloured population should be 
ignored altogether. But it was claimed on behalf of the South 
that their property in slaves should be represented, and in com- 
pliance with this claim, although no slave can vote or in any way 
demand the services of a representative, the coloured people are 
reckoned among the population. When the numbers of the free 
persons are counted, to this number is added " three-fifths of all 
other persons." Five slaves are thus supposed to represent three 
white persons. From the wording, one would be led to suppose 
that there was some other category into which a man might be 
put besides that of free or slave ! But it may be observed, that on 
this subject of slavery the framers of the constitution were tender- 
mouthed. They never speak of slavery or of a slave. It is neces- 
sary that the subject should be mentioned, and therefore we hear 
first of persons other than free, and then of persons bound to la- 
bour ! 

Such were the rules laid down for the formation of Congress, 
and the letter of those rules has, I think, been strictly observed. 
I have not thought it necessary to give all the clauses, but I be- 
lieve I have stated those which are essential to a general under- 
standing of the basis upon which Congress is founded. A refer- 
ence to the Appendix will show all those which I have omitted. 

The constitution ordains that members of both the Plouses shall 
be paid for their time, but it does not decree the amount. "The 
senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for their 
services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury 
of the United States." In the remarks which I have made as to 
the present Congress I have spoken of the amount now allowed. 
The understanding, I believe, is that the pay shall be enough for 
the modest support of a man who is supposed to have raised him- 
self above the heads of the crowd. Much may be said in favour 
of this payment of legislators, but very much may also be said 
against it. There was a time when our members of the House 
of Commons were entitled to payment for their services, and when, 
at any rate, some of them took the money. It may be that with a 
new nation such an arrangement w^as absolutely necessary. Men 
whom the people could trust, and who would have been able to 
give up their time without payment, would not have probably been 
found in a new community. The choice of senators and of rep- 
resentatives would have been so limited that the legislative power 
would have fallen into the hands of a few rich men. Indeed it 



k 



472 NORTH AMERICA. 

may be said that such payment was absolutely necessary in the 
early clays of the life of the Union. But no one, I think, will deny 
that the tone of both Houses would be raised by the gratuitous 
service of the legislators. It is well known that politicians find 
their way into the Senate and into the Chamber of Representa- 
tives solely with a view to the loaves and fishes. The very word 
"politician" is foul and unsavoury throughout the States, and 
means rather a political blackleg than a political patriot. It is 
useless to blink this matter in speaking of the politics and policy 
of the United States. The corruption of the venial politicians of 
the nation stinks aloud in the nostrils of all men. It behoves the 
country to look to this. It is time now that she should do so- 
The people of the nation are educated and clever. The women 
are bright and beautiful. Her charity is profuse ; her philanthro- 
py is eager and true ; her national ambition is noble and honest, — 
honest in the cause of civilization. But she lias soiled herself with 
political corruption, and has disgraced the cause of republican gov- 
ernment by the dirt of those whom she has placed in her high 
places. Let her look to it now. She is nobly ambitious of repu- 
tation throughout the earth ; she desires to be called good as well 
as great ; to be regarded not only as powerful, but also as benefi- 
cent. She is creating an army ; she is forging cannon and pre- 
paring to build impregnable ships of war. But all these will fail 
to satisfy her pride, unless she can cleanse herself from that cor- 
ruption by which her political democracy has debased itself. A 
politician should be a man worthy of all honour, in that he loves 
his country ; and not one worthy of all contempt, in that he robs 
his country. 

I must not be understood as saying that every senator and rep- 
resentative who takes his pay is wrong in taking it. Indeed, I 
have already expressed an opinion that such payments were at 
first necessary, and I by no means now say that the necessity has 
as yet disappeared. In the minds of thorough democrats it will 
be considered much that the poorest man of the people should be 
enabled to go into the legislature, if such poorest man be w^orthy 
of that honour. I am not a thorough democrat, and consider that 
more would be gained by obtaining in the legislature that educa- 
tion, demeanour, and freedom from political temptation which easy 
circumstances produce. I am not, however, on this account in- 
clined to quarrel with the democrats, — not on that account if they 
can so manage their aflTairs that their poor and popular politicians 
shall be fairly honest men. But I am a thorough republican, re- 
garding our own English form of government as the most purely 



THE CONSTITUTION OF' THE UNITED STATES. 473 

republican that I know, and as such I have a close and warm 
sympathy with those trans- Atlantic anti-monarchical republicans 
who are endeavouring to prove to the world that they have at 
length founded a political Utopia. I for one do not grudge them all 
the good they can do, all the honour they can win. But I grieve 
over the evil name which now taints them, and which has accom- 
panied that wider spread of democracy which the last twenty years 
has produced. This longing for universal suffrage in all things — 
in voting for the President, in voting for judges, in voting for the 
representatives, in dictating to senators, has come up since the days 
of President Jackson, and with it has come corruption and unclean 
hands. Democracy must look to it, or the world at large will de- 
clare her to have failed. 

One would say that at any rate the Senate might be filled with 
unpaid servants of the public. Each State might surely find two 
men who could aflTord to attend to the public weal of their country 
withou^claiming a compensation for their time. In England we 
find no difficulty in being so served. Those cities among us in 
which the democratic element most strongly abounds, can procure 
representatives to their mind — even though the honour of filling 
the position is not only not remunerative, but is very costly. I 
cannot but think that the Senate of the United States would stand 
higher in the public estimation of its own country, if it were an 
unpaid body of men. 

It is enjoined that no person holding any office under the United 
States shall be a member of either House during his continuance 
in office. At first sight such a rule as this appears to be good in 
its nature ; but a comparison of the practice of the United States' 
Government with that of our own makes me think that this em- 
bargo on members of the legislative bodies is a mistake. It pro- 
hibits the President's ministers from a seat in either House, and 
thereby relieves them from the weight of that responsibility to 
which our ministers are subjected. It is quite true that the United 
States' ministers cannot be responsible as are our ministers, seeing 
that the President himself is responsible and that the Queen is not 
so. Indeed, according to the theory of the American constitution, 
the President has no ministers. The constitution speaks only of 
the principal officers of the executive departments. " He," the 
President, " may require the opinion in writing of the principal of- 
ficer in each of the executive departments." But in practice he has 
his cabinet, and the irresponsibility of that cabinet would practi- 
cally cease if the members of it were subjected to the questionings 
of the two Houses. With us the rule which prohibits servants of 



474 NORTH America; 

the State from going into Parliament is, like many of our constitu- 
tional rules, hard to be defined, and yet perfectly understood. It 
may perhaps be said, with the nearest approach to a correct defi- 
nition, that permanent servants of the State may not go into Par- 
liament, and that those may do so whose services are political, de- 
pending for the duration of their term on the duration of the exist- 
ing ministry. But even this would not be exact, seeing that the 
Master of the Rolls and the officers of the army and navy can sit in 
Parliament. The absence of the President's ministers from Con- 
gress certainly occasions much confusion, or rather prohibits a 
more thorough political understanding between the executive and 
the legislative than now exists. In speaking of the Government 
of the United States in the next chapter, I shall be constrained to 
allude again to this subject.* 

The duties of the House of Representatives are solely legisla- 
tive. Those of the Senate are legislative and executive — as with 
us those of the Upper House are legislative and judicial. The 
House of Representatives is always open to the public. TOe Sen- 
ate is so open when it is engaged on legislative work; but it is 
closed to the public when engaged in executive session. No 
treaties can be made by the President, and no appointments to 
high offices confirmed without the consent of the Senate ; and this 
consent must be given — as regards the confirmation of treaties — 
by two-thirds of the members present. This law gives to the 
Senate the power of debating with closed doors upon the nature 
of all treaties, and upon the conduct of the government as evinced 
in the nomination of the officers of State. It also gives to the 
Senate a considerable control over the foreign relations of the 
Government. I believe that this power is often used, and that by 
it the influence of the Senate is raised much above that of the 
Lower House, This influence is increased again by the advant- 
age of that superior statecraft and political knowledge which the 
six years of the senator gives him over the two years of the rep- 
resentative. 'I'he tried representative, moreover, very frequently 
blossoms into a senator ; but a senator does not frequently fade 
into a representative. Such occasionally is the case, arid it is not 
even unconstitutional for an ex-President to re-appear in either 

* It will be alleged by Americans that the introduction into Congress of the 
President's ministers wovild alter all the existing relations of the President 
and of Congress, and would at once produce that Parliamentary form of Gov- 
ernment which England possesses, and which the States have chosen to avoid. 
Such a change would elevate Congress, and depress the President. No doubt 
this is true. Such elevation, however, and such depression seem to me to be 
the two things needed. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 475 

House. Mr. Benton, after thirty years' service in the Senate, sat 
in the House of Eepresentatives. Mr. Crittenden, who Avas re- 
turned as senator by Kentucky, I think seven times, now sits in 
the Lower House ; and John Quincy Adams appeared as a rep- 
resentative from Massachusetts after he had filled the Presidential 
chair. 

And, moreover, the Senate of the United States is not debarred 
from an interference with money bills, as the House of Lords is 
debarred with us. "All bills for raising revenue," says the sev- 
enth section of the first article of the constitution, " shall originate 
with the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose 
or concur with amendments as on other bills." By this the Sen- 
ate is enabled to have an authority in the money matters of the 
nation almost equal to that held by the Lower House, — an author- 
ity quite sufficient to preserve to it the full influence of its other 
powers. With us the House of Commons is altogether in the 
ascendant, because it holds and jealously keeps to itself the exclu- 
sive command of the public purse. 

Congress can levy custom duties in the United States, and al- 
ways has done so; hitherto the national revenue has been ex- 
clusively raised from custom duties. It cannot levy duties on 
imports. It can levy excise duties, and is now doing so ; hitherto 
it has not done so. It can levy direct taxes, such as an income- 
tax and a property-tax ; it hitherto has not done so, but now must 
do so. It must do so, I think I am justified in saying ; but its power 
of doing this is so hampered by constitutional enactment, that it 
would seem that the constitution as regards this heading must be 
altered before any scheme can be arranged by which a moderately 
just income-tax can be levied and collected. This difficulty I 
have already mentioned, but perhaps it will be well that I should 
endeavour to make the subject more plain. It is specially de- 
clared, " That all duties, imports, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States." And again, "That no capitation 
or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in pi'oportion to the census 
or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken." And again, 
in the words before quoted, " Representatives and direct taxes 
shall be apportioned among the several States which shall be in- 
cluded in this Union, according to their respective numbers." By 
these repeated rules it has been intended to decree that the sepa- 
rate States shall bear direct taxation according to their population 
and the consequent number of their representatives ; and this in- 
tention has been made so clear, that no direct taxation can be 
levied in opposition to it without an evident breach of the consti- 



476 NORTH AMERICA. 

tution. To explain the way in which this will work, I will 
name the two States of Rhode Island and Iowa as opposed to 
each other, and the two States of Massachusetts and Indiana as 
opposed to each other. Rhode Island and Massachusetts are 
wealthy Atlantic States, containing, as regards enterprise and 
commercial success, the cream of the population of the United 
States. Comparing them in the ratio of population, I believe 
that they are richer than any other States. They return be- 
tween them thirteen representatives, Rhode Island sending two 
and Massachusetts eleven. Iowa and Indiana also send thir- 
teen representatives, Iowa sending two, and being thus equal 
to Rhode Island ; Indiana sending eleven and being thus equal 
to Massachusetts. Iowa and Indiana are western States ; and 
though I am not prepared to say that they are the poorest 
States of the Union, I can assert that they are exactly opposite 
in their circumstances to Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The 
two Atlantic States of ISTew England are old established, rich, 
and commercial. The two western States I have named are 
full of new immigrants, are comparatively jDoor, and are agri- 
cultural. Nevertheless any direct taxation levied on those in 
the East and on those in the West must be equal in its weight. 
Iowa must pay as much as Rhode Island ; Indiana must pay as 
much as Massachusetts. But Rhode Island and Massachusetts 
could pay w^ithout the sacrifice of any comfort to its people, 
without any sensible suffering, an amount of direct taxation 
which would crush the States of Iowa and Indiana, — which in- 
deed no tax-gatherer could collect out of those States. Rhode 
Island and Massachusetts could with their ready money buy 
Iowa and Indiana; and yet the income-tax to be collected from 
the poor States is to be the same in amount as that collected 
from the rich States. Within each individual State the total 
amount of income-tax or of other direct taxation to be levied 
from that State may be apportioned as the State may think fit ; 
but an income-tax of two per cent, on Rhode Island would 
probably produce more than an income-tax often per cent, in 
Iowa ; whereas Rhode Island could pay an income-tax of ten 
per cent, easier than could Iowa one of two per cent. 

It would in fiict appear that the constitution as at present 
framed is fiital to all direct taxation. Any law for the collec- 
tion of dn-ect taxation levied under the constitution would pro- 
duce internecine quarrel between the western States and those 
which border on the Atlantic. The western States would not 
submit to the taxation. The difficulty which one here feels is 
that which always attends an attempt at finality in political ar- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 477 

rangements. One would be inclined to say at once that the 
law should be altered, and that as the money required is for 
the purposes of the Union and for State purposes, such a 
change should be made as would enable Congress to levy an 
income-tax on the general income of the nation. But Congress 
cannot go beyond the constitution. 

It is true that the constitution is not final, and that it con- 
tains an express article ordaining the manner in which it may 
be amended. And perhaps I may as well explain here the 
manner in which this can be done, although by doing so, I am 
departing from the order in which the constitution is written. 
It is not final, and amendments have been made to it. But the 
making of such amendments is an operation so ponderous and 
troublesome, that the difiiculty attached to any such change 
envelops the constitution with many of the troubles of finality. 
With us there is nothing beyond an act of parliament. An 
act of parliament with us cannot be unconstitutional. But no 
such power has been confided to Congress, or to Congress and 
the President together. No amendment of the constitution 
can be made without the sanction of the State legislatures. 
Congress may propose any amendments, as to the expediency 
of which two-thirds of both Houses shall be agreed ; but before 
such amendments can be accepted they must be ratified by the 
legislatures of three-fourths of the States, or by conventions in 
three-fourths of the States, " as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by Congress." Or Congress, in- 
stead of proposing the amendments, may, on an application 
from the legislatures of two-thirds of the diflferent States, call a 
convention for the proposing of them. In which latter case the 
ratification by the difterent States must be made after the same 
fashion as that required in the former case. I do not know 
that I have succeeded in making clearly inteUigible the circum- 
stances under which the constitution can be amended; but I 
think I may have succeeded in explaining that those circum- 
stances are difficult and tedious. In a matter of taxation why 
should States agree to an alteration proposed with the very ob- 
ject of increasing their proportion of the national burden ? But 
unless such States will agree, — unless Rhode Island, Massa- 
chusetts, and New York will consent to put their own necks 
into the yoke, — direct taxation cannot be levied on them in a 
manner available for national purposes. I do believe that 
Rhode Island and Massachusetts at present possess a patriot- 
ism sufticient for such an act. But the mode of doing the work 
will create disagreement^ or at any rate, tedious delay and dif- 



478 NOETH AMERICA. 

ficulty. How shall the constitution be constitutionally amend- 
ed while one-third of the States are in revolt ? 

In the eighth section of its first article the constitution gives 
a list of the duties which Congress shall perform, — of things, in 
short, which it shall do, or shall have power to do : — To raise 
taxes ; to regulate commerce and the naturalization of citizens ; 
to coin money and protect it when coined ; to establish postal 
communication ; to make laws for defence of patents and copy- 
rights ; to constitute national courts of law inferior to the Su- 
preme Court ; to punish piracies ; to declare war ; to raise, pay 
for, and govern armies, navies, and militia ; and to exercise ex- 
clusive legislation in a certain district which shall contain the 
seat of Government of the United States, and Avhich is there- 
fore to be regarded as belonging to the nation at large, and not 
to any particular State. This district is now called the district 
of Columbia. It is situated on the Potomac and contains the 
city of Washington. 

Then the ninth section of the same article declares what Con- 
gress shall not do. Certain immigration shall not be prohibit- 
ed; the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not he sus- 
pended, except under certain circumstances ; no ex post facto 
law shall be passed ; no direct tax shall be laid unless in jDro- 
portion to the census; no tax shall be laid on exports; no 
money shall be drawn from the treasury but by legal appro- 
2mation; no title of nobility shall be granted. 

The above are lists or catalogues of the powers which Con- 
gress has, and of the powers which Congress has not; of what 
Congress may do, and of what Congress may not do ; and hav- 
ing given them thus seriatim, I may here perhaps be best en- 
abled to say a few Avords as to the suspension of the privilege 
of the writ of habeas corpus in the United States. It is gener- 
ally known that this privilege has been suspended during the 
existence of the present rebellion very many times ; that this 
has been done by the executive, and not by Congress ; and that 
it is maintained by the executive, and by those who defend the 
conduct of the now acting executive of the United States, that 
the power of suspending the writ has been given by the consti- 
tution to the President, and not to Congress. I confess that I 
cannot understand how any man, familiar either with the word- 
ing or with the spirit of the constitution should hold such an 
argument. To me it appears manifest that the executive, in 
suspending the privilege of the wi'it without the authority of 
Congress, has committed a breach of the constitution. Were 
the case one referring to our British constitution, a plain man, 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 479 

knowing little of Parliamentary usage, and nothing of law lore, 
would probably feel some hesitation in expressing any decided 
opinion on such a subject, seeing that our constitution is un- 
Avritten. But the intention has been that every citizen of the 
United States should know and understand the rules under 
•which he is to live, — and he that runs may read. 

As this matter has been argued by Mr. Horace Binney, a 
lawyer of Philadelphia, much trusted, of very great and of de- 
served eminence throughout the States, in a pamphlet in w^hich 
he defends the suspension of the privilege of the Avrit by the 
President, I w^ill take the position of the question as summed 
up by him in his last page, and compare it with that clause in 
the constitution by which the suspension of the privilege under 
certain circumstances is decreed ; and to enable me to do this 
I wnll, in the first place, quote the words of the clause in ques- 
tion : — 

"The privilege of the Avrit of habeas corpus shall not be sus- 
pended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public 
safety may require it." It is the second clause of that section 
Avhich states what Congress shall not do. 

Mr. Binney argues as follows: — "The conclusion of the 
■whole matter is this : that the constitution itself is the law of 
the privilege, and of the exception to it; that the exception is 
expressed in the constitution, and that the constitution gives 
effect to the act of suspension when the conditions occur ; that 
the conditions consist of two matters of fact, — one a naked 
matter of fact, and the other a matter-of-fact conclusion from 
facts, that is to say, rebellion and the public danger, or the re- 
quirement of public safety." By these words Mr. Binney in- 
tends to imply that the constitution itself gave the privilege of 
the writ of habeas corpus, and itself prescribes the taking away 
of that privilege under certain circumstances. But this is not 
so. The constitution does not prescribe the susiDension of the 
23rivilege of the writ under any circumstances. It says that it 
shall not be suspended except under certain circumstances. 
Mr. Binney's argument, if I understand it, then goes on as fol- 
lows. As the constitution prescribes the circumstances under 
which the privilege of the writ shall be suspended, the one 
circumstance being the naked matter-of-fact rebellion, and the 
other circumstance the public safety supposed to have been 
endangered by such rebellion, — which Mr. Binney calls a mat- 
ter-of-fact conclusion from facts, the constitution must be pre- 
sumed itself to suspend the privilege of the writ. Whether 
the President or Congress be the agent of the constitution in 



480 NORTH AMERICA. 

this suspension is not matter of moment. Either can only be 
an agent, and as Congress cannot act executively, whereas the 
President must ultimately be charged with the executive ad- 
ministration of the order for that suspension, which has in fact 
been issued by the constitution itself, therefore the power of 
exercising the suspension of the writ may properly be pre- 
sumed to be in the hands of the President, and not to be in 
the hands of Congress. 

If I follow Mr. Binney's argument, it amounts to so much. 
But it seems to me that Mr. Binney is wrong in his premises, 
and wrong in his conclusion. The article of the constitution 
in question does not define the conditions under which the 
privilege of the writ shall be suspended. It simply states that 
this privilege shall never be suspended, except under certain 
conditions. It shall not be suspended unless when the public 
safety may require such suspension on account of rebellion or 
invasion. Rebellion or invasion are not necessarily to produce 
such suspension. There is indeed no naked matter of fact to 
guide either President or Congress in the matter, and therefore 
I say that Mr. Binney is wrong in his premises. Rebellion or 
invasion might occur twenty times over, and might even en- 
danger the public safety, without justifying the suspension of 
the i^rivilege of the writ under the constitution. I say also 
that Mr. Binney is wrong in his conclusion. The public safety 
must require the suspension before the suspension can be justi- 
fied, and such requirement must be a matter for judgment, and 
for the exercise of discretion. Whether or no there shall be 
any suspension is a matter for deliberation, — not one simply 
for executive action, as though it were already ordered. There 
is no matter-of-fact conclusion from facts. Should invasion or 
rebelHon occur, and should the public safety, in consequence 
of such rebellion or invasion, require the suspension of the 
privilege of the writ, then, and only then, may the privilege 
be suspended. But to whom is the power, or rather the duty, 
of exercising this discretion delegated ? Mr. Binney says that 
" there is no express delegation of the power in the constitu- 
tion." I maintain that Mr. Binney is again wrong, and that 
the constitution does expressly delegate the power, not to the 
President, but to Congress. This is done so clearly, to my 
mind, that I cannot understand the misunderstanding which 
has existed in the States upon the subject. The first article 
of the constitution treats " of the legislature." The second 
article treats " of the executive." The third treats "of the ju- 
diciary." After that there are certain " miscellaneous articles," 



I 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 481 

SO called. The eighth section of the first article gives, as I 
have said before, a list of things which the legislature or Con- 
gress shall do. The ninth section gives a list of things which 
the legislature or Congress shall not do. The second item in 
this list is the prohibition of any suspension of the privilege of 
the writ of habeas corpus, except under certain circumstances. 
This prohibition is therefore expressly placed upon Congress, 
and this prohibition contains the only authority under which 
the privilege can be constitutionally suspended. Then conies 
the article on the executive, which defines the powers that the 
President shall exercise. In that article there is no word re- 
ferring to the suspension of the privilege of the writ. He that 
runs may read. 

I say, therefore, that Mr. Lincoln's Government has com- 
mitted a breach of the constitution in taking upon itself to 
suspend the privilege ; — a breach against the letter of the con- 
stitution. It has assumed a power wliich the constitution has 
not given it, — which, indeed, the constitution, by placing it in 
the hands of another body, has manifestly declined to put into 
the hands of the executive ; and it has also committed a breach 
against the spirit of the constitution. The chief purport of the 
constitution is to guard the liberties of the people, and to con- 
fide to a deliberative body the consideration of all circum- 
stances by which those liberties may be afiected. The Presi- 
dent shall command the army; but Congress shall raise and 
support the army. Congress shall declare war. Congress shall 
coin money. Congress, by one of its bodies, shall sanction 
treaties. Congress shall establish such law courts as are not 
established by the constitution. Under no circumstances is 
the President to decree what shall be done. But he is to do 
those things which the constitution has decreed or which Con- 
gress shall decree. It is monstrous to suppose that power over 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus would, among such 
a people, and under such a constitution, be given without limit 
to the chief ofiicer, the only condition being that there should 
be some rebellion. Such rebellion might be in Utah territory ; 
or some trouble in the uttermost bounds of Texas would suffice. 
Any invasion, such as an inroad by the savages of Old Mexico 
upon New Mexico, would justify an arbitrary President in rob- 
bing all the people of all the States of their liberties ! A squab- 
ble on the borders of Canada would put such a power into the 
hands of the President for four years ; or the presence of an 
'English frigate in the St, Juan channel might be held to do so. 
I say that such a theory is monstrous. 

X 



482 NORTH AMERICA. 

And the effect of this breach of the constitution at the in-es- 
ent day has been very disastrous. It has taught those who 
have not been close observers of the American struggle to be- 
lieve that, after all, the Americans are indifferent as to their 
liberties. Such pranks have been played before high heaven 
by men utterly unfitted for the use of great power, as have 
scared all the nations. Mr. Lincoln, the President by whom 
this unconstitutional act has been done, apparently delegated 
his assumed authority to his minister, Mr. Seward. Mr. Sew- 
ard has revelled in the privilege of unrestrained arrests, and 
has locked men np with reason and without. He has instituted 
passports and surveillance ; and placed himself at the head of 
an omnipresent police system Avith all the gusto of a Fouche, 
though luckily without a Fouche's craft or cunning. The time 
will probably come when Mr. Seward must pay for this, — not 
with his life or liberty, but with his reputation and political 
name. But in the mean time his lettres de cachet have run 
everywhere through the States. The pranks which he played 
were absurd, and the arrests wiiich he made were grievous. 
After a while, when it became manifest that Mr. Seward had 
not found a way to success, when it was seen that he had in- 
augurated no great mode of putting down rebellion, he appar- 
ently lost his power in the cabinet. The arrests ceased, the 
passports were discontinued, and the prison-doors were grad- 
ually opened. Mr. Seward was deposed, not from the cabinet, 
but from the premiership of the cabinet. The suspension of 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus was not counter- 
manded, but the operation of the suspension was allowed to 
become less and less onerous; and now, in April, 1862, within 
a year of the commencement of the suspension, it has, I think, 
nearly died out. The object in hand now is rather that of get- 
ting rid of political prisoners, than of taking others. 

This assumption by the government of an unconstitutional 
power has, as I have said, taught many lookers-on to think 
that the Americans are indifferent to their liberties. I myself 
do not believe that such a conclusion would be just. During 
the present crisis the strong feeling of the people — that feeling 
which for the moment has been dominant — has been one in 
favour of the government as against rebellion. There has been 
a passionate resolution to support the nationality of the nation. 
Men have felt that they must m^ke individual sacrifices, and 
that such sacrifices must include a temporary suspension of 
some of their constitutional rights. But I think that this tem- 
porary suspension is already regarded with jealous eyes ; — with 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 483 

an increasing jealousy which will have created a reaction against 
such policy, as that which Mr. Seward has attempted, long be- 
fore the close of Mr. Lincoln's Presidency. I know that it is 
wrong in a writer to commit himself to prophecies, but I find 
it impossible to write upon this subject without doing so. As 
I must express a surmise on this subject, I venture to prophesy 
that the Americans of the States will soon show that they are 
not indifferent to the suspension of the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus. On that matter of the illegality of the suspen- 
sion by the President I feel in my own mind that there is no 
doubt. 

The second article of the constitution treats of the executive, 
and is very short. It places the whole executive power in the 
hands of the President, and explains with more detail the mode 
in which the President shall be chosen, than the manner after 
which the duties shall be performed. The first section states 
that the executive shall be vested in a President, who shall 
hold his ofiice for four years. With him shall be chosen a 
Vice-President. I may here explain that the Vice-President, 
as such, has no power either political or administrative. He 
is, ex officio, the speaker of the Senate ; and should the Presi- 
dent die, or be by other cause rendered unable to act as Presi- 
dent, the Vice-President becomes President either for the re- 
mainder of the Presidential term or for the period of the Pres- 
ident's temporary absence. Twice since the constitution was 
written, the President has died and the Vice-President has 
taken his place. No President has vacated his position, even 
for a period, through any cause other than death. 

Then come the rules under which the President and Vice- 
President shall be elected, — with reference to which there has 
been an amendment of the constitution subsequent to the fourth 
presidential election. This was found to be necessary by the 
circumstances of the contest between John Adams, Thomas 
Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. It was then found that the com- 
plications in the method of election created by the original 
clause were all but unendurable, and the constitution was 
amended. 

I will not describe in detail the present mode of election, as 
the doing so would be tedious and unnecessary. Two facts I 
wish, however, to make specially noticeable and clear. The 
first is, that the President of the United States is now chosen 
by universal suffrage ; and the second is, that the constitution 
expressly intended that the President should not be chosen by 
universal suffrage, but by a body of men who should enjoy the 



484 NORTH AMERICA. 

confidence and fairly represent the will of the people. The 
framers of the constitution intended so to write the words, 
that the people themselves should have no more immediate 
concern in the nomination of the President than in that of the 
Senate. They intended to provide that the election should be 
made in a manner which may be described as thoroughly con- 
servative. Those words, however, have been inefficient for 
their purpose. They have not been violated. But the spirit 
has been violated, while the words have been held sacred, — and 
the Presidential elections are now conducted on the widest 
principles of universal suffrage. They are essentially demo- 
cratic. 

The arrangement, as written in the constitution, is that each 
State shall appoint a body of electors equal in number to the 
senators and representatives sent by that State to Congress, 
and that thus a body or college of electors shall be formed 
equal in number to the two joint Houses of Congress, by which 
the President shall be elected. "No member of Congress, how- 
ever, can be appointed an elector. Thus New York, with thir- 
ty-three representatives in the Lower House, would name thir- 
ty-five electors ; and Rhode Island, w^ith two members in the 
Lower House, would name four electors ; — in each case two 
being added for the two senators. 

It may perhaps be doubted whether this theory of an elec- 
tion by electors has ever been truly carried out. It was prob- 
ably the case, even at the election of the first Presidents after 
Washington, that the electors were pledged in some informal 
way as to the candidate for whom they should vote ; but the 
very idea of an election by electors has been abandoned since 
the Presidency of General Jackson. According to the theory 
of the constitution the privilege and the duty of selecting a 
best man as President was to be delegated to certain best men 
chosen for that purpose. This was the intention of those who 
framed the constitution. It may, as I have said, be doubted 
whether this theory has ever availed for action ; but since the 
days of Jackson it has been absolutely abandoned. The inten- 
tion was sufiiciently conservative. The electors to whom was 
to be confided this great trust were to be chosen in their own 
States as each State might think fit. The use of universal suf- 
frage for this purpose Avas neither enjoined nor forbidden in 
the separate States, — was neither treated as desirable or unde- 
sirable by the constitution. Each State was left to judge how 
it would elect its own electors. But the President himself was 
to be chosen by those electors, and not by the people at large. 



THE CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 485 

The intention is sufficiently conservative, but the intention is 
not carried out. 

The electors are still chosen by the difterent States in con- 
formity with the bidding of the constitution. The constitu- 
tion is exactly followed in all its biddings, as far as the word- 
ing of it is concerned ; but the whole spirit of the document 
has been evaded in the favour of democracy, and universal suf- 
frage in the Presidential elections has been adopted. The elect- 
ors are still chosen, it is true ; but they are only chosen as the 
mouthpiece of the people's choice, and not as the mind by 
which that choice shall be made. We have all heard of Amer- 
icans voting for a ticket, — for the democratic ticket, or the re- 
publican ticket. All political voting in the States is now man- 
aged by tickets. As regards these Presidential elections, each 
party decides on a candidate. Even this primary decision is a 
matter of voting among the party itself. When Mr. Lincoln 
Avas nominated as its candidate by the rejDublican party, the 
names of no less than thirteen candidates were submitted to 
the delegates who were sent to a convention at Chicago, as- 
sembled for the purpose of fixing upon a candidate. At that 
convention Mr. Lincoln was chosen as the republican candi- 
date ; and in that convention was in fact fought the battle 
which was won in Mr. Lincoln's favour, although that conven- 
tion was what w^e may call a private arrangement, wholly irre- 
spective of any constitutional enactment. Mr. Lincoln was 
then proclaimed as the republican candidate, and all republic- 
ans were held as bound to support him. When the time came 
for the constitutional election of the electors, certain names 
were got together in each State as representing the republican 
interest. These names formed tlie republican ticket, and any 
man voting for them voted in fact for Lincoln. There were 
three other parties, each represented by a candidate, and each 
had its own ticket in the different States. It is not to be sup- 
posed that the supporters of Mr. Lincoln were very anxious 
about their ticket in Alabama, or those of Mr. Breckinridge as 
to theirs in Massachusetts. In Alabama a democratic slave- 
ticket would of course prevail. In Massachusetts a republican 
free-soil ticket would do so. But it may, I think, be seen that 
in this way the electors have in reality ceased to have any 
weight in the elections, — have in very truth ceased to have the 
exercise of any will whatever. They are mere names, and no 
more. Stat nominis umbra. The election of the President is 
made by universal suffrage, and not by a college of electors. 
The words as they are written are still obeyed ; but the consti- 



486 NORTH AMERICA. 

tution in fact has been violated, for the spirit of it has been 
changed in its very essence. 

The President must have been born a citizen of the United 
States. This is not necessary for the holder of any other of- 
fice, or for a senator or representative ; he must be thirty-four 
years old at the time of his election. 

His executive power is almost unbounded. He is much more 
powerful than any minister can be with us, and is subject to 
a much lighter responsibility. He may be impeached by the 
House of Representatives before the Senate, but that impeach- 
ment only goes to the removal from office and permanent dis- 
qualification for office. But in these days, as we all practically 
understand, responsibility does not mean the fear of any great 
punishment, but the necessity of accounting from day to day 
for public actions. A leading statesman has but slight dread 
of the axe, but is in hourly fear of his opponent's questions. 
The President of the United States is subject to no such ques- 
tionings ; and as he does not even require a majority in either 
House for the maintenance of his authority, his responsibility 
sits upon him very slightly. Seeing that Mr. Buchanan has es- 
caped any punishment for maladministration, no President need 
fear the anger of the people. 

The President is Commander-in-chief of the army and of the 
navy. He can grant pardons, — as regards all offences com- 
mitted against the United States. He has no power to pardon 
an offence committed against the laws of any State, and as to 
which the culprit has been tried before the tribunals of that 
State. He can make treaties ; but such treaties are not valid 
till they have been confirmed by two-thirds of the senators pres- 
ent in executive session. He appoints all ambassadors and oth- 
er public officers, — but subject to the confirmation of the Sen- 
ate. He can convene either or both Houses of Congress at ir- 
regular times, and under certain circumstances can adjourn 
them. His executive power is in fact almost unlimited ; and 
this power is solely in his own hands, as the constitution knows 
nothing of the President's ministers. According to the consti- 
tution these officers are merely the heads of his bureaux. An 
Englishman, however, in considering the executive power of 
the President, and in making any comparison between that and 
the executive power of any officer or officers attached to the 
Crown in England, should always bear in mind that the Presi- 
dent's power, and even authority, is confined to the Federal 
Government, and that he has none with reference to the indi- 
vidual States. Religion, education, the administration of the 






THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 487 

general laws which concern every man and woman, and the 
real de facto Government which comes home to every house ; — 
these things are not in any way subject to the President of the 
United States. 

His legislative j)ower is also great. He has a veto upon all 
acts of Congress. This veto is by no means a dead letter, as is 
the veto of the Crown with us ; but it is not absolute. The 
President, if he refuses his sanction to a bill sent up to him 
from Congress, returns it to that House in which it originated, 
with his objections in writing. If, after that, such bill shall 
again pass through both the Senate and the House of Repre- 
sentatives, receiving in each House the approvals of two-thirds 
of those present, then such bill becomes law without the Presi- 
dent's sanction. Unless this be done the President's veto stops 
the bill. This veto has been frequently used, but no bill has 
yet been passed in opposition to it. 

The third article of tlie constitution treats of the judiciary 
of the United States, but as I purpose to write a chapter de- 
voted to the law courts and lawyers of the States, I need not 
here describe at length the enactments of the constitution on 
this head. It is ordained that all criminal trials, except in cases 
of impeachment, shall be by jury. 

There are after this certain miscellaneous articles, some of 
which belong to the constitution as it stood at first, and others 
of which have been since added as amendments. A citizen of 
one State is to be a citizen of every State. Criminals from one 
State shall not be free from pursuit in other States. Then 
comes a very material enactnient : — " No person held to serv- 
ice or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping 
into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
therein, be discharged from such service or labour ; but shall 
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labour may be due." In speaking of a person held to labour 
the constitution intends to speak of a slave, and the article 
amounts to a fugitive slave law. If a slave run away out of 
South Carolina and find his way into Massachusetts, Massachu- 
setts shall deliver him up when called npon to do so by South 
Carolina. The words certainly are clear enough. But Massa- 
chusetts strongly objects to the delivery of such men when so 
desired. Such men she has delivered up, with many groanings 
and much inward perturbation of spirit. But it is understood, 
not in Massachusetts only, but in the free-soil States generally, 
that fugitive slaves shall not be delivered up by the ordinary 
action of the laws. There is a feeling strong as that which we 



488 NORTH AMERICA. 

entertain with reference to the rendition of slaves from Canada. 
With such a clause in the constitution as that, it is hardly too 
much to say that no free-soil State will consent to constitutional 
action. Were it expunged from the constitution, no slave State 
would consent to live under it. It is a point as to which the 
advocates of slavery and the enemies of slavery cannot be 
brought to act in union. But on this head I have already said 
what little I have to say. 

New States may be admitted by Congress, but the bounds 
of no old State shall be altered without the consent of such 
State. Congress shall have power to rule and dispose of the 
territories and property of the United States. The United 
States guarantee every State a republican form of Government ; 
but the constitution does not define that form of Government. 
An ordinary citizen of the United States, if asked, would prob- 
ably say that it included that description of franchise which I 
have called universal suffrage. Such, however, was not the 
meaning of those who framed the constitution. The ordinary 
citizen would probably also say that it excluded the use of a 
king, though he would, I imagine, be able to give no good rea- 
son for saying so. I take a republican government to be that 
in which the care of the people is in the hands of the people. 
They may use an elected President, an hereditary king, or a 
chief magistrate called by any other name. But the magistrate, 
w^hatever be his name, must be the servant of the people and 
not their lord. He must act for them and at their bidding, — 
not they at his. If he do so, he is the chief officer of a repub- 
lic ; — as is our Queen with us. 

The United States' constitution also guarantees to each State 
protection against invasion, and, if necessary, against domestic 
violence, — meaning, I presume, internal violence. The words 
domestic violence might seem to refer solely to slave insurrec- 
tions ; but such is not the meaning of the words. The free 
State of New York would be entitled to the assistance of the 
Federal Government in putting down internal violence, if un- 
able to quell such violence by her own power. 

This constitution, and the laws of the United States made in 
pursuance of it, are to be held as the supreme law of the land. 
The judges of every State are to be bound thereby, let the laws 
or separate constitution of such State say what they will to the 
contrary. Senators and others are to be bound by oath to sup- 
port the constitution ; but no religious test shall be required as 
a qualification to any office. 

In the amendments to the constitution, it is enacted that 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 489 

CoDgress shall make no law as to the establishment of any re- 
ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and also that 
it shall not abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press, or 
of petition. — The Government, however, as is well known, has 
taken upon itself to abridge the freedom of the press. — The 
right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed. Then 
follow various clauses intended for the security of the people 
in reference to the administration of the laws. They shall not 
be troubled by unreasonable searches. They shall not be made 
to answer for great offences except by indictment of a grand 
jury. They shall not be put twice in jeopardy for the same 
offence. They shall not be compelled to give evidence against 
themselves. Private property shall not be taken for public use 
without compensation. Accused persons in criminal proceed- 
ings shall be entitled to speedy and public trial. They shall be 
confronted with the witnesses against them, and shall have as- 
sistance of counsel. Suits in which the value controverted is 
above 20 dollars (4^.) shall be tried before juries. Excessive 
bail shall not be required, nor cruel and unusual punishments 
inflicted. In all which enactments we see, I think, a close re- 
semblance to those which have been time-honoured among 
ourselves. 

The remaining amendments apply to the mode in which the 
President and Vice-President shall be elected, and of them I 
have already spoken. 

The constitution is signed by Washington as President, — as 
President and Deputy from Virginia. It is signed by deputies 
from all the other States, except Rhode Island. Among the 
signatures is that of Alexander Hamilton, from New York; of 
Franklin, heading a crowd in Pennsylvania, in the capital of 
which State the convention was held ; and that of James Madi- 
son, the future Presid-ent, from Virginia. 

In the beginning of this chapter I have spoken of the splendid 
results attained by those who drew up the constitution ; and 
then, as though in opposition to the praise thus given to their 
work, I have insisted throughout the chapter both on the in- 
sufiiciency of the constitution and on the breaches to which it 
has been subjected. I have declared my opinion that it is in- 
efiicient for some of its required purposes, and have said that, 
whether inefficient or efficient, it has been broken and in some 
degree abandoned. I maintain, however, that in this I have 
not contradicted myself. A boy, who declares his purpose of 
learning the ^neid by heart, will be held as being successful 
if at the end of the given period he can repeat eleven books 

X 2 



490 ' SrOETH AMERICA. 

out of the twelve. Nevertheless the reporter, in summing up 
the achievement, is bound to declare that that other book has 
not been learned. Under this constitution of which I have 
been speaking, the American people have achieved much ma- 
terial success and great political power. As a people they have 
been happy and prosperous. Their freedom has been secured 
to them, and for a period of seventy-five years they have lived 
and prospered without subjection to any form of tyranny. This 
in itself is much, and should, I think, be held as a preparation 
for greater things to follow. Such, I think, should be our opin- 
ion, although the nation is at present burdened by so heavy a 
load of troubles. That any written constitution should serve 
its purposes and maintain its authority in a nation for a dozen 
years is in itself much for its framers. Where are now the 
constitutions which were written for France? But this con- 
stitution has so wound itself into the afiections of the people, 
has become a mark for such reverence and love, has, after a 
trial of three quarters of a century, so recommended itself to 
the judgment of men, that the difficulty consists in touching it, 
not in keeping it. Eighteen or twenty millions of people w^io 
have lived under it, — in what way do they regard it ? Is not 
that the best evidence that can be had respecting it ? Is it to 
them an old woman's story, a useless parchment, a thing of old 
words at which all must now smile? Heaven mend them, if 
they reverence it more, as I fear they do, than they reverence 
their Bible. For them, after seventy-five years of trial, it has 
almost the weight of inspiration. In this respect, — with refer- 
ence to this worship of the work of their forefathers, they may 
be in error. But that very error goes far to prove the excel- 
lence of the code. When a man has walked for six months 
over stony ways in the same boots, he will be believed when 
he says that his boots are good boots. No assertion to the 
contrary from any bystander will receive credence, even though 
it be shown that a stitch or two has come undone, and that 
some required purpose has not effectually been carried out. 
The boots have carried the man over his stony roads for six 
months, and they must be good boots. And so I say that the 
constitution must be a good constitution. 

As to that positive breach of the constitution which has, as 
I maintain, been committed by the present Government, al- 
though I have been at some trouble to prove it, I must own 
that I do not think very much of it. It is to be lamented, but 
the evil admits, I think, of easy repair. It has happened at a 
period of unwonted difficulty, when the minds of men were in- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 491 

tent rather on the support of that nationaUty which guarantees 
their liberties, than on the enjoyuient of those Uberties them- 
selves, and the fault may be pardoned if it be acknowledged. 
But it is essential that it should be acknowledged. In such a 
matter as that there should at any rate be no doubt. Now, in 
tiiis very year of the rebellion, it may be well that no clamour 
against Government should arise from the people, and thus add 
to the difficulties of the nation. But it will be bad, indeed, for 
the nation if such a fault shall have been committed by this 
Government and shall be allowed to pass unacknowledged, un- 
rebuked, — as though it were a virtue and no fault. I cannot 
but think that the time will soon come in which Mr. Seward's 
reading of the constitution and Mr. Lincoln's assumption of il- 
legal power under that reading will receive a different construc- 
tion in the States than that put upon it by Mr. Binney. 

But I have admitted that the constitution itself is not perfect. 
It seems to me that it requires to be amended on two separate 
points ; — especially on two ; and I cannot but acknowledge 
that there would be great difficulty in making such amend- 
ments. That matter of direct taxation is the first. As to that 
I shall speak again in referring to the financial position of the 
country. I think, however, that it must be admitted, in any 
discussion held on the constitution of the United States, that 
the theory of taxation as there laid down will not suffice for 
the wants of a great nation. If the States are to maintain their 
ground as a great national power, they must agree among 
themselves to bear the cost of such greatness. While a custom 
duty was sufficient for the public wants of the United States, 
this fault in the constitution was not felt. But now that stand- 
ing armies have been inaugurated^ that iron-clad ships are held 
as desirable, that a great national debt has been founded, cus- 
tom duties will suffice no longer, nor will excise duties suffice. 
Direct taxation must be levied, and such taxation cannot be 
fairly levied without a change in the constitution. But such a 
change may be made in direct accordance with the spirit of 
the constitution, and the necessity for such an alteration cannot 
be held as proving any inefficiency in the original document for 
the purposes originally required. 

As regards the other point which seems to me to require 
amendment, I must acknowledge that I am about to express 
simply my own opinion. Should Americans read what I Avrite, 
they may probably say that I am recommending them to adopt 
the blunders made by the English in their practice of govern- 
ment. Englishmen, on the other hand, may not improbably 



492 NOETH AMEKICA. 

conceive that a system which works well here under a mon- 
archy, would absoUitely fail under a presidency of four years' 
duration. Nevertheless I will venture to suggest that the gov- 
ernment of the United States would be improved in all respects, 
if the gentlemen forming the President's cabinet were admitted 
to seats in Congress. At present they are virtually irresponsi- 
ble. They are constitutionally little more than head clerks. 
This was all very well while the Government of the United 
States Avas as yet a small thing; but now it is no longer a 
small thing. The President himself cannot do all, nor can he 
be, in truth, responsible for all. A cabinet, such as is our cab- 
inet, is necessary to him. Such a cabinet does exist, and the 
members of it take upon themselves the honours which are 
given to our cabinet ministers. But they are exempted from 
all that parliamentary contact which, in fact, gives to our cab- 
inet ministers their adroitness, their responsibility, and their 
position in the country. On this subject also I must say an- 
other word or two further on. 

But how am I to excuse the constitution on those points as 
to which it has, as I have said, fallen through, — in respect to 
which it has shown itself to be inefficient by the weakness of 
its own words ? Seeing that all the executive "power is intrust- 
ed to the President, it is especially necessary that the choice of 
the President should be guarded by constitutional enactments ; 
— that the President should be chosen in such a manner as may 
seem best to the concentrated wisdom of the country. The 
President is placed in his seat for four years. For that term 
he is irremovable. He acts without any majority in either of 
the legislative Houses. He must state reasons for his conduct, 
but he is not responsible for those reasons. His own judgment 
is his sole guide. No desire of the people can turn him out ; 
nor need he fear any clamour from the press. If an officer so 
high in power be needed, at any rate the choice of such an of- 
ficer should be made with the greatest care. The constitution 
has decreed how such care should be exercised, but the consti- 
tution has not been able to maintain its own decree. The con- 
stituted electors of the President have become a mere name ; 
and that officer is chosen by popular election, in opposition to 
the intention of those who framed the constitution. The effect 
of this may be seen in the characters of the men so chosen. 
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, the two Adamses, and Jack- 
son were the owners of names that have become known in his- 
tory. They were men who have left their marks behind them. 
Those in Europe who have read of anything, have read of them. 



THE CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 493 

Americans, whether as republicans they admire Washington 
and the Adamses, or as democrats hold by Jefferson, Madison, 
and Jackson, do not at any rate blush for their old Presidents. 
But who has heard of Polk, of Pierce, and of Buchanan ? What 
American is proud of them? In the old days the name of a 
future President might be surmised. He w^ould probably be a 
man honoured in the nation ; but who now can make a guess 
as to the next President ? In one respect a guess may be made 
with some safety. The next President will be a man whose 
name has as yet offended no one by its prominence. But one 
requisite is essential for a President ; he must be a man whom 
none as yet have delighted to honour. 

This has come of universal suffrage ; and seeing that it has 
come in spite of the constitution, and not by the constitution, 
it is very bad. Nor in saying this am I speaking my own con- 
viction so much as that of all educated Americans with whom 
I have discussed the subject. At the present moment univers- 
al suffrage is not popular. Those who are the highest among 
the people certainly do not love it. 1 doubt whether the mass- 
es of the people have ever craved it. It has been introduced 
into the Presidential elections by men called politicians — by 
men who have made it a matter of trade to dabble in state af- 
fairs, and who have gradually learned to see how the constitu- 
tional law, with reference to the Presidential electors, could be 
set aside without any positive breach of the constitution.* 

Whether or no any backward step can now be taken, — 
whether these elections can again be put into the hands of men 
fit to exercise a choice in such a matter, — may well be doubt- 
ed. Facilis descensus Averni. But the recovery of the down- 
ward steps is very difficult. On that subject, however, I hard- 
ly venture here to give an opinion. I only declare what has 
been done, and express my belief that it has not been done in 
conformity with the wishes of the people, — as it certainly has 
not been done in conformity with the intention of the constitu- 
tion. 

In another matter a departure has been made from the con- 
servative spirit of the constitution. This departure is equally 
grave with the other, but it is one which certainly does admit 

* On this matter one of the best, and best informed Americans that I have 
known told me that he differed from me. "It introduced itself," said he. 
"It was the result of social and political forces. Election of the President 
by popular choice became a necessity." The meaning of this is, that in re- 
gard to their Presidential elections the United States drifted into universal 
suffrage. I do not know that this theory is one more comfortable for his 
country than my own. 



494 KORTH AMERICA. 

of correction. I allude to the present position assumed by- 
many of the senators, and to the instructions given to them by 
the State legislatures, as to the votes which they shall give in 
the Senate. An obedience on their part to such instructions is 
equal in its effects to the introduction of universal suffrage into 
the elections. It makes them hang upon the j^eople, divests 
them of their personal responsibility, takes away all those ad- 
vantages given to them by a six years' certain tenure of office, 
and annuls the safety secured by a conservative method of elec- 
tion. Here again I must declare my opinion that this demo- 
cratic practice has crept into the Senate without any expressed 
wish of the people. In all such matters the people of the na- 
tion has been strangely undemonstrative. It has been done as 
part of a system which has been used for transferring the po- 
litical power of the nation to a body of trading politicians who 
have become known and felt as a mass, and not known and felt 
as individuals. I find it difficult to describe the present polit- 
ical position of the States in this respect. The millions of the 
people are eager for the constitution, are proud of their power 
as a nation, and are ambitious of national greatness. But they 
are not, as I think, especially desirous of retaining political in- 
fluences in their own hands. At many of the elections it is dif- 
ficult to induce them to vote. They have among them a half- 
knowledge that politics is a trade in the hands of the lawyers, 
and that they are the capital by which those political trades- 
men carry on their business. These politicians are all lawyers. 
Pohtics and law go together as naturally as the possession of 
land and the exercise of magisterial powers do with us. It 
may be well that it should be so, as the lawyers are the best 
educated men of the country, and need not necessarily be the 
most dishonest. Political power has come into their hands, 
and it is for their purposes and by their influences that the 
spread of democracy has been encouraged. 

As regards the Senate, the recovery of their old dignity and 
former position is within their own power, l^o amendment 
of the constitution is needed here, nor has the weakness come 
from any insufficiency of the constitution. The Senate can as- 
sume to itself to-morrow its own glories, and can, by doing so, 
become the saviours of the honour and glory of the nation. It 
is to the Senate that we must look for that conservative ele- 
ment which may protect the United States from the violence 
of demagogues on one side and from the desj^otism of military 
power on the other. The Senate, and the Senate only, can 
keep the President in check. The Senate also has a power 



THE GOVEENMEXT. 495 

over the Lower House with reference to the disposal of money, 
which deprives the House of Representatives of that excUisive 
authority which belongs to our House of Commons. It is not 
simply that the House of Representatives cannot do what is 
done by the House of Commons. There is more than this. To 
the Senate, in the minds of all Americans, belongs that superior 
prestige, that acknowledged possession of the greater power 
and fuller scope for action, which is with us as clearly the pos- 
session of the House of Commons. The United States' Senate 
can be conservative, and can be so by virtue of the constitution. 
The love of the constitution in the hearts of all Americans is 
so strong that the exercise of such power by the Senate would 
strengthen rather than endanger its position. I could wish 
that the senators would abandon their money payments, but I 
do not imagine that that will be done exactly in these days. 

I have now endeavoured to describe the strengtli of the 
constitution of the United States, and to explain its weakness. 
The great question is at this moment being solved, whether or 
no that constitution will still be found equal to its requirements. 
It has hitherto been the mainspring in the government of the 
people. They have trusted with almost childlike confidence to 
the wisdom of their founders, and have said to their rulers, — 
"There; in those words, you must find the extent and the 
limit of your powers. It is written down for you, so that he 
who runs may read." That writing down, as it were, at a sin- 
gle sitting, of a sufficient code of instructions for the governors 
of a great nation, had not hitherto in the world's history been 
found to answer. In this instance it. has, at any rate, answered 
better than in any other, probably because the words so writ- 
ten contained in them less pretence of finality in political wis- 
dom than other Avritten constitutions have assumed. A young 
tree must bend, or the Avinds will certainly break it. For my- 
self I can honestly express my hope that no storm may destroy 
this tree. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE GOVERNMENT. 

In" speaking of the American constitution I have said so 
much of the American form of government that but little more 
is left to me to say under that heading. Nevertheless, I should 
hardly go through the work which I have laid out for myself 
if I did not endeavour to explain more continuously, and per* 



496 NORTH AMERICA. 

haps more graphically, than I found myself able to do in the 
last chapter, the system on which public affairs are managed 
in the United States. 

And here I must beg my readers again to bear in mind how 
moderate is the amount of governing which has fallen to the 
lot of the government of the United States ; how moderate, as 
compared with the amount which has to be done by the Queen's 
officers of state for Great Britain, or by the Emperor, with such 
assistance as he may please to accept from his officers of state, 
for France. That this is so must be attributed to more than 
one cause ; but the chief cause is undoubtedly to be found in 
the very nature of a federal government. The States are indi- 
vidually sovereign, and govern themselves as to all internal 
matters. All the judges in England are appointed by the 
Crown ; but in the United States only a small proportion of 
the judges are nominated by the President. The greater num- 
ber are servants of the different States, The execution of the 
ordinary laws for the protection of men and property does not 
fall on the government of the United States, but on the execu- 
tives of the individual States, — unless in some special matters, 
which will be defined in the next chapter. Trade, education, 
roads, religion, the passing of new measures for the internal or 
domestic comfort of the people, all these things are more or 
less matters of care to our government. In the States they are 
matters of care to the governments of each individual State, 
but are not so to the central government at Washington. 

But there are other causes which operate in the same direc- 
tion, and which have hitherto enabled the Presidents of the 
United States, with their ministers, to maintain their positions 
without much knowledge of statecraft, or the necessity for that 
education in state matters which is so essential to our public 
men. In the first place, the United States have hitherto kept 
their hands out of foreign politics. If they have not done so 
altogether, they have so greatly abstained from meddling in 
them that none of that thorough knowledge of the affairs of 
other nations has been necessary to them which is so essential 
with us, and which seems to be regarded as the one thing 
needed in the cabinets of other European nations. This has 
been a great blessing to the United States, but it has not been 
an unmixed blessing. It has been a blessing because the ab- 
sence of such care has saved the country from trouble and from 
expense. But such a state of things was too good to last; and 
the blessing has not been unmixed, seeing that now, Avhen that 
absence of concern in foreign matters has been no longer pos- 



THE GOVERNMENT. 497 

sible, the knowledge necessary for taking a digniied part in 
foreign discussions has been found wanting. Mr. Seward is 
now the Minister for Foreign Aifairs in the States, and it is 
hardly too much to say that he has made himselt a laughing- 
stock among the diplomatists of Europe, by the mixture of his 
ignorance and his arrogance. His reports to his own ministers 
during the single year of his office, as published by himself ap- 
parently with great satisfaction, are a monument not so much 
of his incapacity as of his w^ant of training for such work. We 
all know his long state papers on the ' Trent' affair. What are 
we to think of a statesman who acknowledges the action of 
his country's servant to have been wrong; and in the same 
breath declares that he would have held by that wrong, had 
the material welfare of his country been thereby improved ? 
The United States have now created a great army and a great 
debt. They will soon also have created a great navy. Affairs 
of other nations will press upon them, and they will press 
against the affairs of other nations. In this way statecraft will 
become necessary to them ; and by degrees their ministers w^ill 
become habile, graceful, adroit, — and perhaps 'crafty, as are the 
ministers of other nations. 

And, moreover, the United States have had no outlying col- 
onies or dependencies, such as an India and Canada are to us, 
as Cuba is and Mexico was to Spain, and as were the provinces 
of the Roman empire. Territories she has had, but by the pe- 
culiar beneficence of her political arrangements, these territo- 
ries have assumed the guise of sovereign States, and been ad- 
mitted into federal partnership on equal terms, with a rapidity 
which has hardly left to the central Government the reality of 
any dominion of its own. We are inclined to suppose that 
these new States have been allowed to assume their equal priv- 
" ileges and State rights because they have been continuous to 
the old States — as though it were merely an extension of front- 
ier. But this has not been so. California and Oregon have 
been very much further from Washington than the Canadas 
are from London. Indeed they are still further, and I hardly 
know whether they can be brought much nearer than Canada 
is to us, even by the assistance of railways. But nevertheless 
California and Oregon were admitted as States, the former as 
quickly and the latter much more quickly than its population 
would seem to justify Congress in doing, according to the re- 
ceived ratio of population. A preference in this way has been 
always given by the United States to a young population over 
one that was older. Oregon with its 60,000 inhabitants baa 



498 NORTH AMERICA. 

one rejDreseiitative. New York with 4,000,000 inhabitants has 
thirty-three. But in order to be equal with Oregon, New York 
should have sixty-six. In this way the outlying populations 
have been encouraged to take upon themselves their own gov- 
ernance, and the governing power of the President and his cab- 
inet have been kept within moderate limits. 

But not the less is the position of the President very domin- 
ant in the eyes of us Englishmen by reason of the authority 
with which he is endowed. It is not that the scope of his pow- 
er is great, but that he is so nearly irresponsible in the exer- 
cise of that power. We know that he can be impeached by 
the representatives and expelled from his office by the verdict 
of the Senate ; but this, in fact, does not amount to much. Re- 
sponsibility of this nature is doubtless very necessary, and pre- 
vents ebullitions of tyranny such as those in which a Sultan or 
an Emperor may indulge ; but it is not that responsibiUty 
which especially recommends itself to the minds of free men. 
So much of responsibility they take as a matter of course, as 
they do the air which they breathe. It would be nothing to 
us to know that Lord Palmerston could be impeached for rob- 
bing the Treasury, or Lord Russell punished for selUng us to 
Austria. It is well that such laws should exist, but we do not 
in the least suspect those noble lords of such treachery. "We 
are anxious to know, not in what way they may be impeached 
and beheaded for great crimes, but by what method they may 
be kept constantly straight in small matters. That they are 
true and honest is a matter of course. But they must be obe- 
dient also, discreet, capable, and above all things of one mind 
with the public. Let them be that ; or if not they, then with 
as little delay as may be some others in their place. That with 
us is the meaning of ministerial responsibility. To that re- 
sponsibility all the cabinet is subject. But in the Government 
of tlie United States there is no such responsibility. The Pres- 
ident is placed at the head of the executive for four years, and 
while he there remains no man can question him. It is not 
that the scoj^e of his power is great. Our own Prime Minister 
is doubtless more powerful, — has a wider authority. But it is 
that within the scope of his power the President is free from 
all check. There are no reins, constitutional or unconstitu- 
tional, by which he can be restrained. He can absolutely re- 
pudiate a majority of both Houses, and refuse the passage of 
any act of Congress even though supported by those majori- 
ties. He can retain tlie services of ministers distasteful to the 
whole country. He can place his own myrmidons at the head 



THE GOVERNMENT. 499 

of the array and riav}^ — or can himself take the command im- 
mediately on his own shoulders. All this he can do, and there 
is no one that can question him. 

It is hardly necessary that I should point out the fundament- 
al difference between our King or Queen, and the President of 
the United States. Our Sovereign, we all know% is not re- 
sponsible. Such is the nature of our constitution. But there 
is not on that account any analogy between the irresponsibility 
of the Queen and that of the President. The Queen can do no 
wrong; but therefore, in all matters of policy and governance, 
she must be ruled by advice. For that advice her ministers 
are responsible; and no act of policy or governance can be 
done in England as to w^hich responsibility does not immedi- 
ately settle on the shoulders appointed to bear it. But this is 
not so in the States. The President is nominally responsible. 
But from that every-day working responsibility, which is to us 
so invaluable, the President is in fact free. 

I will give an instance of this. Now, at this very moment 
of my writing, news has reached us that President Lincoln has 
relieved General Maclellan from the command of the whole 
army, that he has given separate commands to two other gen- 
erals, — to General Halleck, namely, and alas ! to General Fre- 
mont, and that he has altogether altered the whole organiza- 
tion of the military command as it previously existed. This 
he did not only during war, but with reference to a special bat- 
tle, for the special fighting of which he, as ex-officio Command- 
er-in-Chief of the forces, had given orders. I do not hereby in- 
tend to criticise this act of the President's, or to point out that 
that has been done Avhich had better have been left undone. 
The President, in a strategical point of view^ may have been, — 
very probably has been, quite right. I, at any rate, cannot say 
that he has been Avrong. But then neither can anybody else 
say so with any powder of making himself heard. Of this ac- 
tion of the President's, so terribly great in its importance to 
the nation, no one has the power of expressing any opinion to 
which the President is bound to listen. For four years he has 
this sway, and at the end of four years he becomes so power- 
less that it is not then worth the while of any demagogue in a 
fourth-rate town to occupy his voice with that President's 
name. The anger of the country as to the things done both 
by Pierce and Buchanan is very bitter. But who w^astes a 
thought upon either of the men ? A past President in the 
United States is of less consideration than a past Mayor in an 
English borough. Whatever evil he may have done during 



500 NORTH AMERICA. 

his office, when out of office he is not worth the powder which 
would be expended in an attack. 

But the President has his ministers as our Queen has hers. 
In one sense he has such ministers. He has high state serv- 
ants who under him take the control of the various depart- 
ments, and exercise among them a certain degree of patronage 
and executive power. But they are the President's ministers, 
and not the ministers of the people. Till lately there has been 
no chief minister among them, nor am I prepared to say that 
there is any such chief at present. According to the existing 
theory of the government these gentlemen have simply been 
the confidential servants of the commonwealth under the Pres- 
ident, and have been attached each to his own department 
Avithout concerted political alliance among themselves, without 
any acknowledged chief below the President, and without any 
combined responsibility even to the President. If one minis- 
ter was in fault — let us say the Postmaster-General, — he alone 
was in fault, and it did not fall to the lot of any other minister 
either to defend hitn, or to declare that his conduct was inde- 
fensible. Each owed his duty and his defence to the President 
alone ; and each might be removed alone, without explanation 
given by the President to the others. I imagine that the late 
practice of the President's cabinet has in some degree departed 
from this theory ; but if so, the departure has sprung from in- 
dividual ambition rather than from any preconcerted plan. 
Some one place in the cabinet has seemed to give to some one 
man an opportunity of making himself 25re-eminent, and of this 
opportunity advantage has been taken. I am not now intend- 
ing to allude to any individual, but am endeavouring to indi- 
cate the way in which a ministerial cabinet, after the fashion 
of our British cabinet, is struggling to get itself created. No 
doubt tlie position of Foreign Secretary has for some time past 
been considered as the most influential under the President. 
This has been so much the case that many have not hesitated 
to call the Secretary of State the chief minister. At the pres- 
ent moment, May 1862, the gentleman who is at the head of 
the war department has, I think, in his own hands greater pow- 
er than any of his colleagues. 

It will probably come to pass before long that one special 
minister will be the avowed leader of the cabinet, and that he 
will be recognized as the chief servant of the State under the 
President. Our own cabinet, which now-a-days seems with us 
to be an institution as fixed as Parliament and as necessary as 
the throne, has grown by degrees into its present shape, and is 



THE GOVEBNMENT. 501 

not, in truth, nearly so old as many of us suppose it to be. It 
shaped itself, I imagine, into its present form, and even into its 
jDresent joint responsibility, during the reign of George III. It 
must be remembered that even with us there is no such thing 
as a constitutional Prime Minister, and that our Prime Minis- 
ter is not placed above the other ministers in any manner that 
is palpable to the senses. He is paid no more than the others ; 
he has no superior title; he does not take the highest rank 
among them ; he never talks of his subordinates, but always 
of his colleagues ; he has a title of his own, that of First Lord 
of the Treasury, but it implies no headship in the cabinet. That 
he is the head of all political power in the nation, the Atlas who 
has to bear the globe, the god in whose hands rest the thunder- 
bolts and the showers, all men do know. No man's position is 
more assured to him. But the bounds of that position are writ- 
ten in no book, are defined by no law, have settled themselves 
not in accordance with the recorded wisdom of any great men, 
but as expediency and the fitness of political things in Great 
Britain liave seemed from time to time to require. This drift- 
ing of great matters into their proper places is not as closely in 
accordance with the idiosyncrasies of the American people as 
it is with our own. They would prefer to define by words, as 
the French do, what shall be the exact position of every public 
servant connected with their Government ; or rather of every 
public servant with whom the people shall be held as having 
any concern. But nevertheless, I think it will come to pass 
that a cabinet will gradually form itself at Washington as it has 
done at London, and that of that cabinet there will be some 
recognized and ostensible chief. 

But a Prime Minister in the United States can never take 
the place there which is taken here by our Premier. Over our 
Premier there is no one politically superior. The highest po- 
litical responsibility of the nation rests on him. Li the States 
this must always rest on the President, and any minister, what- 
ever may be his name or assumed position, can only be responsi- 
ble through the President. And it is here especially that the 
working of the United States system of Government seems to 
me deficient, — appears as though it wanted something to make 
it perfect and round at all points. Our ministers retire from 
their offices, as do the Presidents; and indeed the ministerial 
term of office with us, though of course not fixed, is in truth 
much shorter than the Presidential term of four years. But 
our ministers do not, in fact, ever go out. At one time they 
take one position, with pay, patronage, and power ; and at an- 



502 NORTH AMERICA. 

other time another position, without these good things ; but in 
either position they are acting as pubHc men, and are, in truth, 
responsible for what they say and do. But the President, on 
whom it is presumed that the whole of the responsibility of the 
United States Government rests, goes out at a certain day, and 
of him no more is heard. There is no future before him to urge 
him on to constancy ; no hope of other things beyond, of great- 
er'honours and a wider fame, to keep him wakeful in his coun- 
try's cause. He has already enrolled his name on the list of his 
country's rulers, and received what reward his country can give 
him. Conscience, duty, patriotism may make him true to his 
place. True to his place, in a certain degree, they will make 
him. But ambition and hope of things still to come are the 
moving motives in the minds of, most men. Few men can al- 
low their energies to expand to their fullest extent in the cold 
atmosphere of duty alone. The President of the States must 
feel that he has reached the top of the ladder, and that he soon 
will have done with life. As he goes out he is a dead man. 
And what can be expected from one who is counting the last 
lingering hours of his existence ? " It will not be in my time," 
Mr. Buchanan is reported to have said, when a friend spoke to 
him with warning voice of the coming rebellion. " It will not 
be in my time." In the old days, before democracy had pre- 
vailed in upsetting that system of Presidential election which 
the constitution had intended to fix as permanent, the Presidents 
were generally re-elected for a second term. Of the seven first 
Presidents five were sent back to the White House for a second 
period of four years. But this has never been done since the 
days of General Jackson ; nor will it be done, unless a stronger 
conservative reaction takes place than the country even as yet 
seems to promise. As things have lately ordered themselves, 
it may almost be said that no man in the Union Avould be so 
improbable a candidate for the Presidency as the outgoing Pres- 
ident. And it has been only natural that it should be so. Look- 
ing at the men themselves who have lately been chosen, the 
fault has not consisted in their non-re-election, but in their orig- 
inal selection. There has been no desire for great men; no 
search after a man of such a nature, that when tried the people 
should be anxious to keej) him. " It will not be in my time," 
says the expiring President. And so, without dismay, he sees 
the empire of his country slide away ifrom him. 

A President, with the possibility of re-election before him, 
Avould be as a minister who goes out, knowing that he may 
possibly come in again before the session is over,— and per- 



THE GOVERNMENT. 503 

haps believing that tlie chances of his doing so are in his fa- 
vour. Under the existing poUtical phase of things in the 
United States, no President has any such prospect; but the 
ministers of the President have that chance. It is no micom- 
raon thing at present for a minister mider one President to re- 
appear as a minister under another ; but a statesman has no 
assurance that he will do so, because he has shown ministerial 
capacity. We know intimately the names of all our possible 
ministers, — too intimately as some of us think, — and would be 
taken much by surprise if a gentleman without an official rep- 
utation were placed at the head of a high office. If something 
of this feeling prevailed as to the President's cabinet, if there 
Avere some assurance that competent statesmen would be ap- 
pointed as Secretaries of State, a certain amount of national re- 
sponsibility would by degrees attach itself to them, and the 
President's shoulders would, to that amount, be lightened. As 
it is, the President pretends to bear a burden, which, if really 
borne, would indicate the possession of Herculean shoulders. 
But, in fact, the burden at present is borne by no one. The 
government of the United States is not in truth responsible 
either to the people or to Congress. 

But these ministers, if it be desired that they shall have 
weight in the country, should sit in Congress either as senators 
or as representatives. That they cannot so sit Avithout an 
amendment of the constitution I have explained in the previous 
chapter; and any such amendment cannot be very readily 
made. Without such seats they cannot really share the re- 
sponsibility of the President, or be in any degree amenable to 
pubUc opinion for the advice which they give in their public 
functions. It will be said that the constitution has expressly 
intended that they should not be responsible, and such, no 
doubt, has been the case. But the constitution, good as it is, 
cannot be taken as perfect. The government has become 
greater than seems to have been contemplated when that code 
was drawn up. It has spread itself as it were over a wider 
surface, and has extended to matters which it was not then 
necessary to touch. That theory of governing by the means 
of little men was very well while the government itself was 
small. A President and his clerks may have sufficed when 
there were from thirteen to eighteen States ; while there were 
no territories, or none at least that required government ; while 
the population was still below five milHons; while a standing 
army was an evil not known and not feared ; while foreign pol- 
itics was a troublesome embroglio in which it was quite uimec- 





604 NORTH AMERICA. 

essary that the United States should take a part. Now there 
are thh*ty-four States. The ten-itories populated by American 
citizens stretch from the States on the Atlantic to those on the 
Pacific. There is a population of thirty million souls. At the 
present moment the United States are employing more soldiers 
than any other nation, and have acknowledged the necessity 
of maintaining a large army even when the present troubles 
shall be over. In addition to this the United States have oc- 
casion for the use of statecraft with all the great kingdoms of 
Europe. That theory of ruling by little men will not do much 
longer. It will be well that they should bring forth their big 
men and put them in the place of rulers. 

The President has at present seven ministers. They are the 
Secretary of State, who is supposed to have the direction of 
Foreign Affairs ; the Secretary of the Treasury, who answers 
to our Chancellor of the Exchequer ; the Secretaries of the 
Army and of the Navy ; the Minister of the Interior ; the At- 
torney-General ; and the Postmaster-General. If these officers 
were allowed to hold seats in one House or in the other, — or 
rather if the President were enjoined to place in these offices 
men who Avere known as members of Congress, not only would 
the position of the President's ministers be enhanced and their 
weight increased, but the position also of Congress would be 
enhanced and the weight of Congress would be increased. I 
may, perhaps, best exemplify this by suggesting what would 
be the effect on our Parliament by withdrawing from it the 
men who at the present moment, — or at any moment, — form 
the Queen's cabinet. I will not say that by adding to Con- 
gress the men who usually form the President's cabinet, a 
weight would be given equal to that which the withdrawal of 
the British cabinet would take from the British Parliament. I 
cannot pay that compliment to the President's choice of serv- 
ants. But the relationship between Congress and the Presi- 
dent's ministers would gradually come to resemble that which 
exists between Parliament and the Queen's ministers. The 
Secretaries of State and of the Treasury would after a while 
o'btain that honour of leading the Houses which is exercised by 
our high political officers, and the dignity added to the posi- 
tions would make the places worthy the acceptance of great 
men. It is hardly so at present. The career of one of the 
President's ministers is not a very high career as things now 
stand ; nor is the man supposed to have achieved much who 
has achieved that position. I think it would be otherwise if 
the ministers were the leaders of the legislative Houses, To 



THE GOVERNMENT. 505 

Congress itself would be given the power of questioning and 
ultimately of controlling these ministers. The power of the 
President would no doubt be diminished as that of Congress 
would be increased. But an alteration in that direction is in 
itself desirable. It is the fault of the present system of gov- 
ernment in the United States that the President has too much 
of power and weight, while the Congress of the nation lacks 
power and weight. As matters now stand, Congress has not 
that dignity of position which it should hold ; and it is without 
it because it is not endowed with that control over the officers 
of the government which our Parliament is enabled to exercise. 
The want of this close connection with Congress and the 
President's ministers has been so much felt, that it has been 
found necessary to create a medium of communication. This 
has been done by a system which has now become a recognized 
part of the machinery of the government, but which is, I be- 
lieve, founded on no regularly organized authority. At any 
rate no provision is made for it in the constitution ; nor, as far 
as I am aware, has it been established by any special enactment 
or written rule. Nevertheless, I believe I am justified in say- 
ing that it has become a recognized link in the system of gov- 
ernment adopted by the United States. In each House stand- 
ing committees are named, to which are delegated the special 
consideration of certain affairs of state. There are, for in- 
stance, committees of foreign affairs, of finance, the judiciary 
committee, and others of a similar nature. To these commit- 
tees are referred all questions which come before the House 
bearing on the special subject to which each is devoted. Ques- 
tions of taxation are referred to the finance committee before 
they are discussed in the House ; and the House, when it goes 
into such discussion, has before it the report of the committee. 
In this way very much of the work of legislation is done by 
branches of each House, and by selected men whose time and 
intellects are devoted to special subjects. It is easy to see 
that much time and useless debate may be thus saved, and I 
am disposed to believe that this system of committees has 
worked efficiently and beneficially. The mode of selection of 
the members has been so contrived as to give to each political 
party that amount of preponderance in each committee which 
such party holds in the House. If the democrats have in the 
Senate a majority, it would be within their power to vote none 
but democrats into the committee on finance ; but this would 
be manifestly unjust to the republican party, and the injustice 
would itself frustrate the object of the party in power ; there- 



506 NORTH AMERICA. 

fore the democrats simply vote to themselves a majority in 
each committee, keeping to themselves as great a preponder- 
ance in the committee as they have in the whole House, and 
arranging also that the chairman of the committee shall belong 
to their own party. By these committees the chief legislative 
measures of the country are originated and inaugurated, — as 
they are with us by the ministers of the Crown, and the chair- 
man of each committee is supposed to have a certain amicable 
relation with that minister who presides over the office with 
which his committee is connected. Mr. Sumner is at present 
chairman of the committee on foreign aifairs, and he is pre- 
sumed to be in connection with Mr. Seward, who, as Secretary 
of State, has the management of the foreign relations of the 
Government. 

But it seems to me that this supposed connection between 
the committees and the ministers is only a makeshift, showing 
by its existence the absolute necessity of close communication 
between the executive and the legislative, but showing also by 
its imperfections the great Avant of some better method of com- 
munication. In the first place the chairman of the committee 
is in no way bound to hold any communication with the min- 
ister. He is simply a senator, and as such has no ministerial 
duties, and can have none. He holds no appointment under 
the President, and has no palpable connection with the execu- 
tive. And then it is quite as likely that he may be opposed in 
politics to the minister as that he may agree with him. If the 
two be opposed to each other on general politics, it may be 
presumed that they caimot act together in union on one special 
subject. Nor, whether they act in union or do not so act, can 
either have any authority over the other. The minister is not 
responsible to Congress, nor is the chairman of the committee 
in any way bound to support the minister. It is presumed 
that the chairman must know the minister's secrets, but the 
chairman may be bound by party considerations to use those 
secrets against the minister. 

The system of committees appears to me to be good as re- 
gards the work of legislation. It seems well adapted to effect 
economy of time and the application of special men to special 
services. But I am driven to think that that connection be- 
tween the chairmen of the committees and the ministers, which 
I have attempted to describe, is an arrangement very imper- 
fect in itself, but plainly indicating the necessity of some such 
close relation between the executive and the legislature of the 
United States as does exist in the political system of Great 



THE GOVERNMENT. 507 

Britain. With ns the Queen's minister has a greater ^Yeight 
in Parliament than the President's minister could hold in Con- 
gress, because the Queen is bound to employ a minister in 
whom the Parliament has confidence. As soon as such confi- 
dence ceases, the minister ceases to be minister. As the Crown 
has no politics of its own, it is simply necessary that the min- 
ister of the day should hold the politics of the people as testi- 
fied by their rej3resentatives. The machinery of the Presi- 
dent's Government cannot be made to work after this fashion. 
The President himself is a political ofiicer, and the country is 
boun^ to bear with his politics for four years, whatever those 
politics may be. The ministry which he selects on coming to 
his seat will probably represent a majority in Congress, seeing 
that the same suftrages which have elected the President will 
also have elected the Congress. But there exists no necessity 
on the part of the President to employ ministers who shall 
carry with them the support of Congress. If, however, the 
ministers sat in Congress, — if it were required of each minister 
that he should have a seat either in one House or in the other, 
— the President would, I think, find himself constrained to 
change a ministry in which Congress should decline to confide. 
It might not be so at first, but there would be a tendency in 
that direction. 

The governing powers do not rest exclusively wuth the Pres- 
ident, or with the President and his ministers ; they are shared 
in a certain degree with the Senate, which sits from time to 
time in executive Session, laying aside at such periods its legis- 
lative character. It is this executive authority which lends so 
great a dignity to the Senate, gives it the privilege of prepon- 
derating over the other House, and makes it the jDolitical safe- 
guard of the nation. The questions of government as to which 
t^e Senate is empowered to interfere are soon told. All treat- 
ies made by the President must be sanctioned by the Senate; 
and all appointments made by the President must be confirmed 
by the Senate. The list is short, and one is disposed to think, 
when first hearing it, that the thing itself does not amount to 
much. But it does amount to very much ; it enables the Sen- 
ate to fetter the President, if the Senate should be so inclined, 
both as regards foreign politics and home politics. A Secre- 
tary for Foreign Affairs at Washington may write what de- 
spatches he pleases without reference to the Senate ; but the 
Senate interferes before those despatches can have resulted in 
any fact which may be detrimental to the nation. It is not 
only that the Senate is responsible for such treaties as are 



508 NORTH AMERICA. 

made, but that the President is deterred from the making of 
treaties for which the Senate would decUne to make itself re- 
sponsible. Even though no treaty should ever be refused its 
sanction by the Senate, the protecting power of the Senate in 
that matter would not on that account have been less necessary 
or less efficacious. Though the bars with which we protect 
our house may never have been tried by a thief, we do not 
therefore believe that our house would have been safe if such 
bars had been known to be wanting. And then, as to that 
matter of state appointments, is it not the fact that all govern- 
ing powers consist in the selection of the agents by whojjji the 
action of Government shall be carried on ? It must come to 
this, I imagine, when the argument is pushed home. The 
power of the most powerful man depends only on the extent 
of his authority over his agents. According to the constitu- 
tion of the United States, the President can select no agent 
either at home or abroad, for purposes either of peace or war, 
or to the employment of whom the Senate does not agree with 
him. Such a rule as this should save the nation from the use 
of disreputable agents as public servants. It might, perhaps, 
have done more towards such salvation than it has as yet eflect- 
ed ; — and it may well be hoj)ed that it will do more in fu- 
ture. 

Such are the executive powers of the Senate ; and it is, I 
think, remarkable that the Senate has always used these pow- 
ers with extreme moderation. It has never shown a factious 
inclination to hinder Government by unnecessary interference, 
or a disposition to clip the President's wings by putting itself 
altogether at variance with him. I am not quite sure whether 
some fault may not have lain on the other side ; whether the 
Senate may not liave been somewhat slack in exercising the 
protective privileges given to it by the constitution. And 
here I cannot but remark how great is the deference paid to 
all governors and edicts of Government throughout the United 
States. One would have been disposed to think that such a 
feeling would be stronger in an old country such as Great 
Britain than in a young country such as the States. But I 
think that it is not so. There is less disposition to question 
the action of government either at Washington or at New 
York, than there is in London. Men in America seem to be 
content when they have voted in their governors, and to feel 
that for them all political action is over until the time shall 
come for voting for others. And this feeling, which seems to 
prevail among the people, prevails also in both Houses of Con- 



THE GOVERNMENT. 509 

gress. Bitter denunciations against the President's policy or 
the President's ministers are seldom heard. Speeches are not 
often made with the object of impeding the action of Govern- 
ment. That so small and so grave a body as the Senate should 
abstain from factious opposition to the Government when em- 
ployed on executive functions was perhaps to be expected. It 
is of course well that it should be so. I confess, however, that 
it has appeared to me that the Senate has not used the power 
placed in its hands as freely as the constitution has intended. 
But I look at the matter as an Englishman, and as an English- 
man I can endure no government action which is not imme- 
diately subject to Parliamentary control. 

Such are the governing powers of the United States. I 
think it will be seen that they are much more limited in their 
scope of action than with us ; but within that scope of action 
much more independent and self-sufficient. And, in addition 
to this, those who exercise power in the United States are not 
only free from immediate responsibility, but are not made sub- 
ject to the hope or fear of future judgment. Success will 
bring no reward, and failure no punishment. I am not aware 
that any political delinquency has ever yet brought down ret- 
ribution on the head of the offender in the United States, or 
that any great deed has been held as entitling the doer of it 
to his country's gratitude. Titles of nobility they have none ; 
pensions they never give ; and political disgrace is unknown. 
The line of politics would seem to be cold and unalluring. It 
is cold ; — and would be unalluring, were it not that as a pro- 
fession it is profitable. In much of this I expect that a change 
will gradually take place. The theory has been that public 
aftairs should be in the hands of little men. The theory was 
intelligible while the public affairs were small; but they are 
small no longer, and that theory, I fancy, will have to alter 
itself. Great men are needed for the government, and in order 
to produce great men a career of greatness must be opened to 
them. I can see no reason why the career and the men should 
not be forthcoming. 



610 NOKTH AMEEICA. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE LAW COURTS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

I DO not propose to make any attempt to explain in detail 
the practices and rules of the American Courts of Law. No 
one but a lawyer should trust himself with such a task, and no 
lawyer would be enabled to do so in the few pages which I 
shall here devote to the subject. My present object is to ex- 
l^lain, as far as I may be able to do so, the existing political po- 
sition of the country. As this must depend more or less upon 
the power vested in the hands of the judges, and upon the ten- 
ure by which those judges hold their offices, I shall endeavour 
to describe the circumstances of the position in which the 
American judges are placed ; the mode in which they are ap- 
pointed; the difference which exists between the national judges 
and the State judges ; and the extent to which they are or are 
not held in high esteem by the general public whom they serve. 

It will, I think, be acknowledged that this last matter is one 
of almost paramount importance to the welfare of a country. 
At home in England we do not realize the importance to us in 
a political as well as social vicAV of the dignity and purity of 
our judges, because we take from them all that dignity and pu- 
rity can give as a matter of course. The honesty of our bench 
is to us almost as the honesty of heaven. No one dreams that 
it can be questioned or become questionable, and therefore there 
are but few who are thankful for its blessings. Few English- 
men care to know much about their own courts of law, or are 
even aware that the judges are the protectors of their liberties 
and property. There are the men, honoured on all sides, trust- 
ed by every one, removed above temptation, holding positions 
Avhich are coveted by all lawyers. That it is so is enough for 
us ; and as the good thence derived comes to us so easily, we 
forget to remember that we might possibly be without it. The 
law courts of the States have much in their simplicity and the 
general intelligence of their arrangements to recommend them. 
In all ordinary causes justice is done with economy, with expe- 
dition, and I believe with precision. But they strike an En- 
glishman at once as being deficient in splendour and dignity, 
as wanting that reverence Avhich we think should be paid to 
words falling from the bench, and as being in danger as to that 
purity, without which a judge becomes a curse among a peo- 
ple, a chief of thieves, and an arch-minister of the Evil One. I 



LAW COURTS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 511 

say as being in danger; — not that I mean to hint that such 
want of purity has been shoAvn, or that I wish it to be believed 
that judges with itching pahns do sit upon the American bench; 
but because the present political tendency of the State arrange- 
ments threatens to produce such danger. We in England trust 
implicitly in our judges, — not because they are Englishmen, but 
because they are Englishmen carefully selected for their high 
positions. We should soon distrust them if they were elected 
by universal suffrage from all the barristers and attorneys prac- 
tising in the different courts ; and so elected only for a period 
of years, as is the case with reference to many of the State 
judges in America. Such a mode of appointment would, in 
our estimation, at once rob them of their prestige. And our 
distrust would not be diminished if the pay accorded to the 
work were so small that no lawyer in good practice could af- 
ford to accept the situation. When we look at a judge in 
court, venerable beneath his wig and adorned with his ermine, 
we do not admit to ourselves that that high officer is honest 
because he is placed above temptation by the magnitude of his 
salary. We do not suspect that he, as an individual, would ac- 
cept bribes and favour suitors if he were in want of money. 
But, still, we know as a fact that an honest man, like any other 
good article, must be paid for at a high price. Judges and 
bishops expect those rewards which all men win who rise to 
the highest steps on the ladder of their profession. And the 
better they are paid, within measure, the better they will be as 
judges and bishops. Now, the judges in America are not well 
l^aid, and the best lawyers cannot afford to sit upon the bench. 
With us the practice of the law and the judicature of our 
law courts are divided. We have Chancery barristers and 
Common Law barristers ; and we have Chancery Courts and 
Courts of Common Law. In the States there is no such divi- 
sion. It prevails neither in the national or federal courts of 
the United States, nor hi the courts of any of the separate 
States. The code of laws used by the Americans is taken al- 
most entirely from our English laws, — or rather, I should say, 
the federal code used by the nation is so taken, and also the 
various codes of the different States, — as each State takes what- 
ever laws it may think fit to adopt. Even the precedents of 
our courts are held as precedents in the American courts, unless 
they chance to jar against other decisions given specially in 
their own courts with reference to cases of their own. In this 
respect the founders of the American law proceedings have 
showm a conservative bias and a predilection for English writ- 



512 NORTH AMERICA. 

ten and traditional law, which are much at variance with that 
general democratic passion for change by which we generally 
presume the Americans to have been actuated at their revolu- 
tion. But though they have kept our laws, and still respect 
our reading of those laws, they have greatly altered and sim- 
plified our practice. Whether a double set of courts for Law 
and Equity are or are not expedient, either in the one country 
or in the other, I do not pretend to know. It is, however, the 
fact that there is no such division in the States. 

Moreover there is no division in the legal profession. With 
us we have barristers and attorneys. In the States the same 
man is both barrister and attorney; and, which is perhaps in 
effect more startliug, every lawyer is presumed to undertake 
law cases of every description. The same man makes your 
will, sells your property, brings an action for you of trespass 
against your neighbour, defends you when you are accused of 
murder, recovers for you two-and-sixpence, and pleads for you 
in an argument of three days' length when you claim to be the 
sole heir to your grandfather's enormous property. I need not 
describe how terribly distinct with us is the difierence between 
an attorney and a barrister, or how much further than the poles 
asunder is the future Lord Chancellor, pleading before the Lords 
Justices at Lincoln's Inn, from the gentleman who at tb.e Old 
Bailey is endeavouring to secure the personal liberty of the 
ruffian who a week or two since walked off with all your silver 
spoons. In the States no such differences are known. A law- 
yer there is a lawyer, and is supposed to do for any client any 
work that a lawyer may be called on to perform. But though 
this is the theory, and as regards any difference between attor- 
ney and barrister is altogether the fact, the assumed practice is 
not, and cannot be maintained as regards the various branches 
of a lawyer's work. When the population was smaller, and the 
law cases were less complicated, the theory and the practice were 
no doubt alike. As great cities have grown up, and properties 
large in amount have come under litigation, certain lawyers 
have found it expedient and practicable to devote themselves 
to special branches of their profession. But this, even up to the 
present time, has not been done openly as it were, or with any 
declaration made by a man as to his own branch of his calling. 
I believe that no such declaration on his part would be in ac- 
cordance with the rules of the profession. He takes a partner, 
however, and thus attains his object ; — or more than one part- 
ner, and then the business of the house is divided among them 
according to their individual specialities. One will plead in 



LAW COUETS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. d13 

court, another will give chamber-counsel, and a third will take 
that lower business which must be done, but which first-rate 
men hardly like to do. 

It will easily be perceived that law in this way will be made 
cheaper to the litigant. Whether or no that may be an un- 
adulterated advantage, I have my doubts. I fancy that the 
united professional incomes of all the lawyers in the States 
would exceed in amount those made in England. In America 
every man of note seems to be a lawyer, and I am told that any 
lawyer who will work may make a sure income. If it be so, it 
would seem that Americans per head pay as much or more for 
their law as men do in England. It may be answered that they 
get more law for their money. That may be possible, and even 
yet they may not be gainers. I have been incUned to think that 
there is an unnecessarily slow and expensive ceremonial among 
us in the employment of barristers through a third party ; it 
has seemed that the man of learning, on whose efforts the liti- 
gant really depends, is divided off from his client and employer 
by an unfair barrier, used only to enhance his own dignity and 
give an unnecessary grandeur to his position. I still think that 
the fault with us lies in this direction. But I feel that I am less 
incUned to demand an immediate alteration in our practice than 
I was before I had seen any of the American courts of law. 

It should be generally understood that lawyers are the lead- 
ing men in the States, and that the governance of the country 
has been almost entirely in their hands ever since the political 
life of the nation became full and strong. All public business 
of importance falls naturally into their hands, as with us it falls 
into the hands of men of settled wealth and landed property. 
Indeed, the fact on which I insist is much more clear and de- 
fined in the States than it is with us. In England the la^yyer3 
also obtain no inconsiderable share of political and municipal 
power. The latter is perhaps more in the hands of merchants 
and men in trade than of any other class ; and even the highest 
seats of political greatness are more open with us to the world 
at large than they seem to be in the States to any that are not 
lawyers. Since the days of Washington every President of the 
United States has, I think, been a lawyer, excepting General 
Taylor. Other Presidents have been generals, but then they 
have also been lawyers. General Jackson was a successful 
lawyer. Almost all the leading politicans of the present day 
are lawyers. Seward, Cameron, Welles, Stanton, Chase, Sum- 
ner, Crittenden, Harris, Fesseudeu, are all lawyers. Webster, 
Clay, Calhoun, and Cass were lawyers. Hamilton and Jay were 

Y2 



514 NORTH AMERICA. 

lawyers. Any man with an ambition to enter upon public life 
becomes a lawyer as a matter of course. It seems as though 
a study and j^ractice of the law were necessary ingredients in 
a man's preparation for political life. I have no doubt that a 
very large proportion of both Houses of legislature w^ould be 
found to consist of lawyers. I do not remember that I know 
of the circumstance of more than one senator who is not a law- 
yer. Lawyers form the ruling class in America as the land- 
owners do with us. With us that ruling class is the wealthiest 
class ; but this is not so in the States. It might be wished that 
it were so. 

The great and ever-present difference between the national 
or federal affairs of the United States government, and the af- 
fairs of the government of each individual State should be borne 
in mind at all times by those who desire to understand the po- 
litical position of the States. Till this be realized no one can 
have any correct idea of the bearings of politics in that coun- 
try. As a matter of course Ave in England have been inclined 
to regard the Government and Congress of Washington as para- 
mount throughout the States, in the same way that the Gov- 
ernment of Downing Street and the Parliament of Westminster 
are paramount through the British isles. Such a mistake is 
natural ; but not the less would it be a fatal bar to any correct 
understanding of the constitution of the United States. The 
national and State governments are independent of each other, 
and so also are the national and State tribunals. Each of these 
separate tribunals has its own judicature, its own judges, its 
own courts, and its own functions. Nor can the supreme tri- 
bunal at Washington exercise any authority over the proceed- 
ings of the Courts in the different States, or influence the de- 
cisions of their judges. For not only are the national judges 
and the State judges indej^endent of each other; but the laws 
in accordance with which they are bound to act, may be essen- 
tially different. The two tribunals, those of the nation and of 
the State, are independent and final in their several spheres. 
On a matter of State jurisprudence no appeal lies from the su- 
preme tribunal of New York or Massachusetts to the supreme 
tribunal of the nation at Washington. 

The national tribunals are of two classes. First, there is the 
Supreme Court specially ordained by the constitution. And 
then there are such inferior courts as Congress may from time 
to time see fit to establish. Congress has no power to abolish 
the Supreme Court, or to erect another tribunal superior to it. 
This court sits at Washington, and is a final court of appeal 



LAW COURTS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 515 

from the inferior national courts of the federal empire. A sys- 
tem of infei-ior courts, inaugurated by Congress, has existed 
for about sixty years. Each State for purposes of national 
jurisprudence is constituted as a district ; some few large States, 
such as New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, being divided 
into two districts. Each district has one district court presided 
over by one judge. National causes in general, both civil and 
criminal, are commenced in these district courts, and those in- 
volving only small amounts are ended there. Above these dis- 
trict courts are the national circuit courts, the districts or States 
having been grouped into circuits as the counties are grouped 
with us. To each of these circuits is assigned one of the judges 
of the Supreme Court of Washington, who is the ex-officio judge 
of that circuit, and who therefore travels as do our Common 
Law judges. In each district he sits with the judge of that 
district, and they two together form the circuit court. Appeals 
from the district court lie to the circuit court in cases over a 
certain amount, and also in certain criminal cases. It follows 
therefore that appeals lie from one judge to the same judge 
when sitting with another, — an arrangement which would seem 
to be fraught with some inconvenience. Certain causes, both 
civil and criminal, are commenced in the circuit courts. From 
the circuit courts the appeal lies to the Supreme Court at Wash- 
ington ; but such appeal beyond the circuit court is not allowed 
in cases which are of small magnitude or which do not involve 
principles of importance. If there be a division of opinion in 
the circuit court the case goes to the Supreme Court ; — from 
whence it might be inferred that all cases brought from the dis- 
trict court to the circuit court would be sent on to the Supreme 
Court, unless the circuit judge agreed with the district judge; 
for the district judge having given his judgment in the inferior 
court, would probably adhere to it in the superior court. No 
appeal lies to the Supreme Court at Washington in criminal 
cases. 

All questions that concern more than one State, or that are 
litigated between citizens of different States, or which are in- 
ternational in their bearing, come before the national judges. 
All cases in which foreigners are concerned, or the rights of 
foreigners, are brought or may be brought into the national 
courts. So also are all causes affecting the Union itself, or w^iich 
are governed by the laws of Congress and not by the laws of 
any individual State. All questions of Admiralty law and mar- 
itime jurisdiction, and cases affecting ambassadors or consuls, 
are there tried. Matters relating to the Post-office, to the Cus- 



61G NOKTH AMERICA. 

toms, the collection of national taxes, to patents, to the army 
and navy, and to the mint, are tried in the national courts. 
The theory is that the national tribunals shall expound and ad- 
minister the national laws and treaties, protect national offices 
and national rights ; and that foreigners and citizens of other 
States shall not be required to submit to the decisions of the 
State tribunals ; — in fact, that national tribunals shall take cog- 
nizance of all matters as to which the general government of 
the nation is responsible. In most of such cases the national 
tribunals have exclusive jurisdiction. In others it is optional 
with the plaintiff to select his tribunal. It is then optional with 
the defendant, if brought into a State court, to remain there or 
to remove his cause into the national tribunal. The princij^le 
is, that either at the beginning, or ultimately, such questions 
shall or may be decided by the national tribunals. If in any 
suit properly cognizable in a State court the decision should 
turn on a clause in the constitution, or on a law of the United 
States, or on the act of a national offence, or on the validity of 
a national act, an appeal lies to the Supreme Court of the United 
States and to its officers. The object has been to give to the 
national tribunals of the nation full cognizance of its own laws, 
treaties, and congressional acts. 

The judges of all the national tribunals, of whatever grade 
or rank, hold their offices for life, and are removable only on 
impeachment. They are not even removable on an address of 
Congress ; thus holding on a firmer tenure even than our own 
judges, who may, I believe, be moved on an address by Par- 
liament. The judges in America are not entitled to any pen- 
sion or retiring allowances ; and as there is not, as regards the 
judges of the national courts, any proviso that they shall cease 
to sit after a certain age, they are, in fact, immoveable what- 
ever may be their infirmities. Their position in this respect is 
not good, seeing that their salaries will hardly admit of their 
making adequate provision for the evening of life. The salary 
of the Chief Justice of the United States is only 1300^. per an- 
num. All judges of the national courts of whatever rank are 
appointed by the President, but their appointments must be 
confirmed by the Senate. This proviso, however, gives to the 
Senate practically but little power, and is rarely used in oppo- 
sition to the will of the President. If the President name one 
candidate, who on political grounds is distasteful to a majority 
of the Senate, it is not probable that a second nomination made 
by him will be more satisfactory. This seems now to be un- 
derstood, and the nomination of the cabinet ministers and of 



LAW COURTS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 517 

the judges, as made by the President, are seldom set aside or 
interfered with by the Senate, unless on grounds of purely per- 
sonal objection. 

The position of the national judges as to their appointments 
and mode of tenure is very different from that of the State 
judges, to whom in a few lines I shall more specially allude. 
This should, I think, be specially noticed by Englishmen when 
criticising the doings of the American courts. I have observed 
statements made to the effect that decisions given by American 
judges as to international or maritime affairs affecting English 
interests could not be trusted, because the judges so giving 
them would have been elected by popular vote, and would be 
dependent on the popular voice for reappointment. This is 
not so. Judges are appointed by popular vote in very many 
of the States. But all matters affecting shipping, and all ques- 
tions touching foreigners are tried in the national courts before 
judges who have been appointed for hfe. I should not myself 
have had any fear with reference to the ultimate decision in 
the affair of Slidell and Mason had the ' Trent' been carried into 
New York. I would, however, by no means say so much had 
the cause been one for trial before the tribunals of the State of 
"New York. 

I have been told that we in England have occasionally fallen 
into the error of attributing to the Supreme Court at Washing- 
ton a quasi political power which it does not possess. This 
court can give no opinion to any department of the Govern- 
ment, nor can it decide upon or influence any subject that has 
not come before it as a regularly litigated case in law. Though 
especially founded by the constitution, it has no peculiar power 
under the constitution, and stands in no peculiar relation either 
to that or to Acts of Congress. It has no other power to de- 
cide on the constitutional legality of an act of Congress or an 
act of a State legislature or of a public officer than every court. 
State and national, Ijigh and low, possesses and is bound to ex- 
ercise. It is simply the national court of last appeal. 

In the different States such tribunals have been established 
as each State by its constitution and legislation has seen fit to 
adopt. The States are entirely free on this point. The usual 
course is to have one Supreme Court, sometimes called by that 
name, sometimes the Court of Appeals, and sometimes the 
Court of Errors. Then they have such especial courts as their 
convenience may dictate. The State jurisprudence includes all 
causes not expressly or by necessary imjDlication secured to the 
national courts. The tribunals of the States have exclusivo 



518 NORTH AMERICA. 

control over domestic relations, religion, education, the tenure 
and descent of land, the inheritance of property, police regula- 
tions, municipal economy, and all matters of internal trade. In 
this category of coarse come the relations of husband and wife, 
parent and child, master and servant, owner and slave, guard- 
ian and ward, tradesman and apprentice. So also do all police 
and criminal regulations not external in their character, — high- 
ways, railroads, canals, schools, colleges, the relief of paupers, 
and those thousand other affairs of the world by which men are 
daily surrounded in their own homes and their own districts. 
As to such subjects Congress can make no law, and over them 
Congress and the national tribunals have no jurisdiction. Con- 
gress cannot say that a man shall be hung for murder in New 
York; nor if a man be condemned to be hung in New York 
can the President pardon him. The legislature of New York 
must say whether or no hanging shall be the punishment ad- 
judged to murder in that State ; and the Governor of the State 
of New York must pronounce the man's pardon, — if it be that 
he is to be pardoned. But Congress must decide whether or 
no a man shall be hung for murder committed on the high seas, 
or in the national forts or arsenals ; and in such a case it is for 
the President to give or to refuse the pardon. 

The judges of the States are appointed as the constitution or 
the laws of each State may direct in that matter. The appoint- 
ment, I think, in all the old States was formerly vested in the 
Governor. In some States such is still the case. In some, if I 
am not mistaken, the nomination is now made, directly, by the 
legislature. But in most of the States the power of appointing 
has been claimed by the people, and the judges are voted in by 
popular election, just as the President of the Union and the 
Governors of the different States are voted in. There has for 
some years been a growing tendency in this direction, and the 
people in most of the States have claimed the power ; — or rath- 
er the power has been given to the peopl© by politicians who 
have wished to get into their hands in this way the patron- 
age of the courts. But now, at the present moment, there is 
arising a strong feeling of the inexpediency of appointing 
judges in such a manner. An antidemocratic bias is taking 
possession of men's minds, causing a reaction against that tend- 
ency to universal suffrage in everything which prevailed before 
the war began. As to this matter of the mode of appointing 
judges, I have heard but one opinion expressed ; and I am in- 
clined to think that a change Avill be made in one State after 
another, as the constitutions of the different States are revised. 



LAW COURTS AND LAWYERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 519 

Such revisions take place generally at periods of about twenty- 
five years' duration. If, therefore, it be acknowledged that the 
system be bad, the error can be soon corrected. 

Nor is this mode of appointment the only evil that has been 
adopted in the State judicatures. The judges in most of the 
States are not appointed for life, nor even during good behav- 
iour. They enter their places for a certain term of years, vary- 
ing from fifteen down, I believe, to seven. I do not know 
whether any are appointed for a term of less than seven years. 
When they go out they have no pensions ; and as a lawyer who 
has been on the bench for seven years can hardly recall his 
practice, and find himself at once in receipt of his old profes- 
sional income, it may easily be imagined how great will be the 
judge's anxiety to retain his position on the bench. This he 
can do only by the universal suffrages of the people, by polit- 
ical popularity, and a general standing of that nature whicli en- 
ables a man to come forth as the favourite candidate of the 
lower orders. This may or may not be well when the place 
sought for is one of political power, — when the duties required 
are political in all their bearings. But no one can think it well 
when the place sought for is a judge's seat on the bench ; — 
when the duties required are solely judicial. Whatever hith- 
erto may have been the conduct of the judges in the courts of 
the different States, whether or no impurity has yet crept in, 
and the sanctity of justice has yet been outraged, no one can 
doubt the tendency of such an arrangement. At present even 
a few visits to the courts constituted in this manner will con- 
vince an observer that the judges on the bench are rather infe- 
rior than superior to the lawyers who jDractise before them. 
The manner of address, the tone of voice, the lack of dignity in 
the judge, and the assumption by the lawyer before him of a 
higher authority than his, all tell this tale. And then the 
judges in these courts are not paid at a rate which will secure 
the services of the best men. They vary in the different States, 
running from about 600/. to about lOOOZ. per annum. But a 
successful lawyer practising in the courts in which these judges 
sit, not unfrequently earns 3000/. a year. A professional income 
of 2000/. a year is not considered very high. AVhen the differ- 
ent conditions of the bench are considered, when it is remem- 
bered that the judge may lose his place after a short term of 
years, and that during that short term of years he receives a 
payment much less than that earned by his successful profes- 
sional brethren, it can hardly be expected that first-rate judges 
should be found. The result is seen daily in society. You 



520 NORTH AMERICA. 

meet Judge This and Judge That, not knowing whether they 
are ex-judges or in-judges ; but you soon learn that your friends 
do not hold any very high social position on account of their 
forensic dignity. 

It is, perhaps, but just to add that in Massachusetts, Avhich I 
cannot but regard as in many respects the noblest of the States, 
the judges are appointed by the Governor, and are appointed 
for life. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 

The Americans are proud of much that they have done in 
this Avar, and indeed much has been done which may justify 
pride ; but of nothing are they so proud as of the noble dimen- 
sions and quick growth of their Government debt. That Mr. 
Secretary Chase, the American Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
participates in this feeling I will not venture to say ; but if he 
do not, he is well nigh the only man in the States who does not 
do so. The amount of expenditure has been a subject of al- 
most national pride, and the two million of dollars a day which 
has been roughly put down as the average cost of the Avar, has 
ahvays been mentioned by northern men in a tone of triumph. 
This feeling is, I think, intelligible ; and although we cannot 
allude to it Avithout a certain amount of inAvard sarcasm, — a 
little gentle laughing in the sleeve, at the nature of this national 
joy, I am not prepared to say that it is altogether ridiculous. 
If the country be found able and Avilling to pay the bill, this 
triumph in the amount of the cost Avill hereafter be regarded as 
having been any thing but ridiculous. In private life an indi- 
vidual Avill occasionally be knoAvn to lavish his Avhole fortune 
on the accomplishment of an object Avhich he conceives to be 
necessary to his honour. If the object be in itself good, and if 
the money be really paid, Ave do not laugh at such a man for 
the sacrifices w^hicli he makes. 

For myself, I think that the object of the northern States in 
this war has been good. I think that they could not have 
avoided the Avar Avithout dishonour, and that it Avas incumbent 
on them to make themselves the arbiters of the future position 
of the South, Avhether that future position shall or shall pot be 
one of secession. This they could only do by fighting. Had 
they acceded to secession Avithout a civil Avar, they Avould have 
been regarded throughout Europe as having shown themselves 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 521 

inferior to the South, and would for many years to come have 
lost that prestige which their spirit and energy had undoubted- 
ly won for them ; and in their own country such submission on 
their part would have practically given to the South the power 
of drawing the line of division between the two new countries. 
That line, so drawn, would have given Virginia, Maryland, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri to the southern Republic. The great effect 
of the war to the North Avill be, that the northern men will 
draw the line of secession, if any such line be drawn. I still 
think that such line will ultimately be drawn, and that the 
southern States will be allowed to secede. But if it be so, 
Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri will not be found 
among these seceding States ; and the line may not improbably 
be driven south of North Carolina and Tennessee. If this can 
be so, the object of the war will, I think, hereafter be admitted 
to have been good. Whatever may be the cost in money of 
joining the States which I have named to a free-soil northern 
jDCople, instead of allowing them to be buried in that dismal 
swamp, which a confederacy of southern slave States will pro- 
duce, that cost can hardly be too much. At the present mo- 
ment there exists in England a strong sympathy with the South, 
l^roduced partly by the unreasonable vituperation with which 
the North treated our Government at the beginning of the war, 
and by the capture of Mason and Slidell ; partly also by that 
feeling of good- will w^hich a looker-on at a combat always has 
for the weaker side. But, although this sympathy does un- 
doubtedly exist, I do not imagine that many Englishmen are 
of opinion that a confederacy of southern slave States will ever 
offer to the general civilization of the world very many attrac- 
tions. It cannot be thought that the South will equal the 
North in riches, in energy, in education, or general well-being. 
Such has not been our experience of any slave country ; such 
has not been our experience of any tropical country ; and such 
especially has not been our experience of the southern States 
of the North American Union. I am no abolitionist ; but to 
me it seems impossible that any Englishman should really ad- 
vocate the cause of slavery against the cause of free soil. There 
are the slaves, and I know that they cannot be abolished, — nei- 
ther they nor their chains ; but, for myself, I will not willingly 
join my lot with theirs. I do not wish to have dealings with 
the African negro either as a, free man or as a slave, if I can 
avoid them, believing that his employment by me in either 
capacity would lead to my own degradation. Such, I think, 
are the feelings of Englishmen generally on this matter. And 



522 NORTH AMERICA. 

if such be the case, will it not be acknowledged that the north- 
ern men have done well to fight for a line which shall add five 
or six States to that Union which will in truth be a union of 
free men, rather than to that Confederacy which, even if suc- 
cessful, must owe its success to slavery ?* 

In considering this matter it must be remembered that the 
five or six States of which we are speaking are at present slave 
States, but that, with the exception of Virginia, — of part only 
of Virginia, — they are not wedded to slavery. But even in 
Virginia, great as has been the gain which has accrued to that 
unhappy State from the breeding of slaves for the southern 
market, — even in Virginia, — slavery would soon die out if she 
were divided from the South, and joined to the North. In 
those other States, in Maryland, in Kentucky, and in Missouri 
there is no desire to perpetuate the institution. They have 
been slave States, and as such have resented the rabid aboli- 
tion of certain northern orators. Had it not been for those ora- 
tors, and their oratory, the soil of Kentucky would now have 
been free. Those five or six States are now slave States ; but 
a line of secession drawn south of them will be the line which 
cuts off slavery from the North. If those States belong to the 
North when secession shall be accomplished, they will belong 
to it as free States ; but if they belong to the South, they will 
belong to the South as slave States. If they belong to the 
North, they will become rich as the North is, and will share in 
the education of the North. If they belong to the South they 
will become poor as the South is, and will share in the igno- 
rance of the South. If we presume that secession will be ac- 
complished, — and I for one am of that opinion, — has it not been 
well that a war should be waged with such an object as this? 
If those five or six States can be gained, stretching east and 
west from the Atlantic to the centre of the continent, hundreds 
of miles beyond the Mississippi, and north and south over four 
degrees of latitude, — if that extent of continent can be added to 
the free soil of the northern territory, Avill not the contest that 

* In saying this I fear that I shall he misunderstood, let me use what foot- 
note or other mode of protestation I may to guard myself. In thus speaking 
of the African negro, I do not venture to despise the work of God's hands. 
That he has made the negro, for His own good purposes, as He has the Esqui- 
maux, I am aware. And I am aware that it is my duty, as it is the duty of 
us all, to see that no injury be done to him, and, if possible, to assist him in 
his condition. When I declare that I desire no dealings with the negro, I 
speak of him in tlie position in which I now find him, either as a free servant 
or a slave. In either position he impedes the civilization and the progress of 
the white man. 



I 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 523 

has done this have been M'ortli any money that can have been 
spent on it ? 

So much as to the object to be gained by the money spent 
on the war! And I think that in estimating the nature of the 
financial position which the war has produced, it was necessary 
that we should consider the value of the object which has beeia 
in disjDute. The object I maintain has been good. Then comes 
the question whether or no the bill will be fairly paid ; — wheth- 
er they who have spent the money will set about that disagree- 
able task of settling the account with a true purpose and an 
honest energy. And this question splits itself into two parts. 
Will the Americans honestly wish to pay the bill ; and if they 
do so wish, will they have the power to pay it? Again that 
last question must be once more divided. Will they have the 
power to pay, as regards the actual possession of the means, 
and if possessing them, will they have the power of access to 
those means ? 

The nation has obtained for itself an evil name for repudia- 
tion. We all know that Pennsylvania behaved badly about 
her money affairs, although she did at last pay her debts. We 
all know that Mississippi has behaved very badly about her 
money affairs, and has never paid her debts, nor does she in- 
tend to pay them. And, which is worse than this, for it ap- 
plies to the nation generally and not to individual States, we 
all know that it was made a matter of boast in the States that 
in the event of a war with England the enormous amount of 
property held by Englishmen in the States should be confis- 
cated. That boast was especially made in the mercantile city 
of New York; and Avhen the matter was discussed it seemed 
as though no American realized the iniquity of such a threat. 
It was iiot apparently understood that such a confiscation on 
account of a war would be an act of national robbery justified 
simply by the fact that the power of committing it would be 
in the hands of the robbers. Confiscation of so large an amount 
of wealth would be a smart thing, and men did not seem to 
perceive that any disgrace would attach to it in the eyes of the 
world at large. I am very anxious not to speak harsh words 
of the Americans ; but when questions arise as to pecuniary ar- 
rangements I find myself forced to acknowledge that great pre- 
caution is at any rate necessary. 

But, nevertheless, I am not sure that we shall be fair if we 
allow ourselves to argue as to the national purpose in this mat- 
ter from such individual instances of dishonesty as those which 
I have mentioned. I do not think it is to be presumed that 



524 NORTH AMERICA. 

the United St.'itcs as n nation will repudiate its debts because 
two separate States may have been guilty of repudiation. Nor 
am I disjDOsed to judge of the honesty of the people generally 
from the dishonest threatenings of New York, made at a mo- 
ment in which a war with England was considered imminent. 
I do believe that the nation, as a nation, will be as ready to 
pay for the war as it has been ready to carry on the war. That 
"ignorant impatience of taxation," to which it is supposed that 
we Britons are very subject, has not been a complaint rife 
among the Americans generally. We, in England, are inclined 
to beheve that hitherto they have known nothing of the merits 
and demerits of taxation, and have felt none of its annoyances, 
because their entire national expenditure has been defrayed by 
light Custom duties ; but the levies made in the separate States 
for State purposes, or chiefly for municipal purposes, have been 
very heavy. They are, however, collected easily, and, as far 
as I am aware, without any display of ignorant impatience. 
Indeed, an American is rarely impatient of any ordained law. 
Whether he be told to do this, or to -pay for that, or abstain 
from the other, he does do and pay and abstain without grum- 
bling, provided that he has had a hand in voting for those who 
made the law and for those who carry out the law. The peo- 
ple generally have, I think, recognized the fact that they will 
have to put their necks beneath the yoke, as the peoples of 
other nations have put theirs, and support the weight of a great 
national debt. When the time comes for the struggle, — for 
the first uphill heaving against the terrible load which they will 
henceforth have to drag with them in their career, I think it 
will be found that they are not ill-inclined to put their shoulders 
to the work. 

Then as to their power of paying the bill ! We are told that 
the wealth of a nation consists in its labour, and that that na- 
tion is the most wealthy which can turn out of hand the great- 
est amount of work. If this be so the American States must 
form a very wealthy nation, and as such be able to support a 
very heavy burden. No one, I presume, doubts that that na- 
tion which works the most, or works rather to the best effect, 
is the richest. On this account England is richer than other 
countries, and is able to bear almost without the sign of an ef- 
fort, a burden which would crush any other land. But of this 
wealth the States own almost as much as Great Britain owns. 
The population of the northern States is industrious, ambitious 
of wealth, and capable of work as is our population. It pos- 
sesses, or is possessed by, that restless longing for labour which 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 525 

creates wealth almost unconsciously. Whether this man be 
rich or be a bankrupt, whether the bankers of that city fail or 
make their millions, the creative energies of the American peo- 
ple will not become dull. Idleness is impossible to them, and 
therefore poverty is impossible. Industry and intellect together 
will always produce wealth ; and neither industry or intellect 
is ever wanting to an American. They are the two gifts with 
which the fairy has endowed him. When she shall have added 
honesty as a third, the tax-gatherer can desire no better coun- 
try in which to exercise his calling. 

I cannot myself think that all the millions that are being 
spent would weigh upon the country with much oppression, if 
the weight were once properly placed upon the muscles that 
will have to bear it. The difficulty will be in the placing of 
the weight. It has, I know, been argued that the circumstances 
under which our national debt has extended itself to its present 
magnificent dimensions cannot be quoted as parallel to those 
of the present American debt, because we, Avhile we were 
creating the debt, were taxing ourselves very heavily, whereas 
the Americans have gone a-head with the creation of their debt, 
before they have levied a shihing on themselves towards the 
payment of those expenses for which the debt has been en- 
countered. But this argument, even if it were true in its gist, 
goes no way towards proving that the Americans will be un- 
able to pay. The population of the present free-soil States is 
above eighteen millions ; that of the States which will probably 
belong to the Union if secession be accomplished is about twen- 
ty-two millions. At a time when our debt had amounte.d to 
six hundred millions sterling, we had no population such as that 
to bear the burden. It may be said that we had more amassed 
wealth than they have. But I take it that the amassed wealth 
of any country can go but a very little way in defraying the 
wants or in paying the debts of a people. We again come 
back to the old maxim, that the labour of a country is its 
wealth ; and that a country will be rich or poor in accordance 
with the intellectual industry of its people. 

But the argument drawn from that comparison between our 
own conduct when we Avere creating our debt, and the conduct 
of the Americans while they have been creating their debt, — 
during the twelve months from April 1, 1861, to March 31, 
1862, let us say, — is hardly a fair argument. We, at any rate, 
knew how to tax ourselves, — if only the taxes might be forth- 
coming. We were already well used to the work ; and a min- 
ister with a willing House of Commons, had all his material 



526 NORTH AMERICA. 

ready to his hand. It has not been so in the United States. 
The difficulty has not been with the people who should pay the 
taxes, but with the minister and the Congress which did not 
know how to levy them. Certainly not as yet have those who 
are now criticising the doings on the other side of the water, 
a right to say that the American people are unwilling to make 
I^ersonal sacrifices for the carrying out of this war. No sign 
has as yet been shown of an unwillingness on the part of the 
people to be taxed. But wherever a sign could be given, it 
has been given on the other side. The separate States have 
taxed themselves very heavily for the support of the families 
of the absent soldiers. The extra allowances made to maimed 
men, amounting generally to twenty-four shillings a month, 
have been paid by the States themselves, and have been paid 
almost with too much alacrity. 

I am of opinion that the Americans will show no unwilling- 
ness to pay the amount of taxation which must be exacted 
from them ; and I also think that as regards their actual means 
they w^ill have the power to pay it. But as regards their power 
of obtaining access to those means, I must confess that I see 
many difficulties in their way. In the first place they have no 
financier, — no man who by natural aptitude and by long con- 
tinued contact with great questions of finance, has enabled him- 
self to handle the money afiairs of a nation with a master's 
hand. In saying this I do not intend to impute any blame to 
Mr. Chase, the present Secretary at the Treasury. Of his abil- 
ity to do the w^ork properly, had he received the proper train- 
ing, I am not able to judge. It is not that Mr. Chase is incapa- 
ble. He may be capable or incapable. But it is that he has 
not had the education of a national financier, and tliat he has 
no one at his elbow to help him who has had that advantage. 

And here we are again brought to that general absence of 
statecraft which has been the result of the American system 
of government. I am not aware that our Chancellors of the-- 
Exchequer have in late years always been great masters of 
finance ; but they have at any rate been among money men and 
money matters, and have had financiers at their elbows if they 
have not deserved the name themselves. The very fact that a 
Chancellor of the Exchequer sits in the House of Commons 
and is forced in that House to answer all questions on the sub- 
ject of finance, renders it impossible that he should be ignorant 
of the rudiments of the science. If you put a white cap on a 
man's head and place him in a kitchen, he will soon learn to be 
a cook. But he Avill never be made a cook by standing in the 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 527 

dining-roora and seeing the dishes as they are bronglit np. 
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is our cook ; and the House 
of Commons, not the Treasury chambers, is his kitchen. Let 
the Secretary of the United States Treasury sit in the House 
of Representatives. He would learn more there by contest 
with opposing members than he can do by any amount of study 
in his own chamber. 

But the House of Representatives itself has not as yet learn- 
ed its own lesson with reference to taxation. When I say that 
the United States are in want of a financier, I do not mean that 
the deficiency rests entirely with Mr. Chase. This necessity 
for taxation, and for taxation at so tremendous a rate, has come 
suddenly, and has found the representatives of the people un- 
prepared for such work. To us, as I conceive, the science of 
taxation, in which we certainly ought to be great, has come 
gradually. We have learned by slow lessons what taxes will 
be productive, under what circumstances they will be most pro- 
ductive, and at what point they will be made unproductive by 
their own weight. We have learned what taxes may be levied 
so as to afford funds themselves, without injuring the proceeds 
of other taxes, and we know Avhat taxes should be eschewed 
as being specially oppressive to the general industry and inju- 
rious to the well-being of the nation. This has come of much 
practice, and even we, with all our experience, have even got 
something to learn. But the public men in the States who are 
now devoting themselves to this matter of taxing the peo^^le 
have, as yet, no such experience. That they have inclination 
enough for the Avork is, I think, sufficiently demonstrated by 
the national tax bill, the wording of which is now before me, 
and which will have been passed into law before this volume 
can be published. It contains a list of every taxable article on 
the earth or under the earth. A more sweeping catalogue of 
taxation was probably never put forth. The Americans, it has 
been said by some of us, have shown no disposition to tax them- 
selves for this war ; but before the war has as yet been well 
twelve months in operation, a bill has come out with a list of 
taxation so oppressive, that it must, as regards many of its 
items, Act against itself and cut its own throat. It will pro- 
duce terrible fraud in its evasion, and create an army of excise 
officers who will be as locusts over the face of the country. 
Taxes are to be laid on articles which I should have said that 
universal consent had declared to be unfit for taxation. Salt, 
soap, candles, oil and other burning fluids, gas, pins, paper, ink, 
and leather, are to be taxed. It was at first proposed that 



528 NORTH AMERICA. 

wheat-flour should be taxed, but that item has, I believe, been 
struck out of the bill in its passage through the House. All 
articles manufactured of cotton, wool, silk, worsted, flax, hemp, 
jute, India-rubber, gutta percha, wood (?), glass, pottery wares, 
leather, paper, iron, steel, lead, tin, copper, zinc, brass, gold and 
silver, horn, ivory, bone, bristles, wholly or in part, or of other 
materials, are to be taxed ; — provided always that books, mag- 
azines, pamphlets, newspapers, and reviews shall not be regard- 
ed as manufactures. It will be said that the amount of taxa- 
tion to be levied on the immense number of manufactured ar- 
ticles which must be included in this list will be light, — the tax 
itself being only 3 per cent, ad valorem. But with reference 
to every article, there will be the necessity of collecting this 3 
per cent. ! As regards each article that is manufactured, some 
government ofiicial must interfere to appraise its value and to 
levy the tax. Who shall declare the value of a barrel of wood- 
en nutmegs ; or how shall the Excise-ofticer get his tax from 
every cobbler's stall in the country ? And then tradesmen are 
to pay licenses for their trades, — a confectioner 2^., a tallow- 
chandler 2/., a horsedealer 21. Every man whose business it is 
to sell horses shall be a horsedealer. True. But Avho shall 
^ay whether or no it be a man's business to sell horses ? An 
aj^othecary 2^., a photographer 2^., a pedlar 4^., 3/., 2/., or 1^., 
according to his mode of travelling. But if the gross receipts 
of any of the confectioners, tallow-chandlers, horsedealers, 
apothecaries, photographers, pedlars, or the like, do not exceed 
200^. a year, then such tradesmen shall not be required to pay 
for any license at all. Surely such a proviso can only have 
been inserted with the express view of creating fraud and ill 
blood ! But the greatest audacity has, I think, been shown in 
the levying of personal taxes, — such taxes as have been held to 
be peculiarly disagreeable among us, and have specially brought 
down upon us the contempt of lightly-taxed people, who, like 
the Americans, have known nothing of domestic interference. 
Carriages are to be taxed, — as they are with us. Pianos also 
are to be taxed, and plate. It is not signified by this clause 
that such articles shall pay a tax, once for all, while in the 
maker's hands, which tax would no doubt fall on the future 
owner of such piano or plate ; in such case the owner Avould 
pay, but would pay Avithout any personal contact with the tax- 
gatherer. But every owner of a piano or of plate is to pay an- 
nually according to the value of the articles he owns. But per- 
haps the most audacious of all the proposed taxes is that on 
watches. Every owner of a watch is to pay As. a year for a 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 529 

gold watch and 25. a year for a silver watch ! The American 
tax-gatherers will not like to be cheated. They will be very 
keen in searching for watches. But who can say whether they 
or the carriers of watches will have the best of it in such a 
hunt. The tax-gatherers will be as hounds ever at work on a 
cold scent. They will now be hot and angry, and then dull and 
disheartened. But the carriers of watches who do not choose 
to pay will generally, one may predict, be able to make their 
points good. 

With such a tax bill, — which I believe came into action on 
the 1st of May, 1862, — the Americans are not fairly open to 
the charge of being unwilling to tax themselves. They have 
avoided none of the irritating annoyances of taxation, as also 
they have not avoided, or attempted to lighten for themselves, 
the dead weight of the burden. The dead weight they are 
right to endure without flinching ; but their mode of laying it 
on their own backs justifies me, I think, in saying that they do 
not yet know how to obtain access to their own means. But 
this bill applies simply to matters of excise. As I have said be- 
fore. Congress, which has hitherto supported the government 
by custom duties, has also the power of levying excise duties, 
and now, in its first session since the commencement of the war, 
has begun to use that power without much hesitation or bash- 
fulness. As regards their taxes levied at the Custom House, 
the government of the United States has always been inclined 
to high duties, with the view of protecting the internal trade 
and. manufactures of the country. The amount required for na- 
tional expenses was easily obtained, and these duties were not 
regulated, as I think, so much with a view to the amount which 
might be collected, as to that of the efiect which the tax might 
have in fostering native industry. That, if I understand it, was 
the meaning of Mr. Morrill's bill, which was passed immediate- 
ly on the secession of the southern members of Congress, and 
which instantly enhanced the price of all foreign manufactured 
goods in the States. But now the desire for protection, sim- 
ply as protection, has been swallowed up in the acknowledged 
necessity for revenue ; and the only object to be recognized in 
the arrangement of the custom duties is the collection of the 
greatest number of dollars. This is fair enough. If the coun- 
try can at such a crisis raise a better revenue by claiming a 
shilling a pound on coffee than it can by claiming sixpence, the 
shilling may be wisely claimed, even though many may thus be 
prohibited from the use of coffee. But then comes the great 
question. What duty will really give the greatest product ? 

Z 



530 NORTU AMERICA. 

At what rate shall we tax coffee so as to get at the people's 
money ? If it be so taxed that people won't use it, the tax cnts 
its own throat. There is some point at which the tax will be 
most productive ; and also there is a point up to which the tax 
will not operate to the serious injury of the trade. Without 
the knowledge which should indicate these points, a Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, with his myrmidons, would be groping in the 
dark. As fur as we can yet see, there is not much of such 
knowledge either in the Treasury Chambers or the House of 
Representatives at Washington. 

But the greatest difficulty which the States will feel in ob- 
taining access to their own means of taxation, is that which is 
created by the constitution itself, and to which I alluded when 
speaking of the taxing powers which the constitution had giv- 
en to Congress, and those Avhich it had denied to Congress. 
As to custom duties and excise duties. Congress can do what 
it pleases, as can the House of Commons. But Congress can- 
not levy direct taxation according to its own judgment. In 
those matters of customs and excise. Congress and the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury will probably make many blunders ; but 
having the power they will blunder through, and the money 
will be collected. But direct taxation, in an available shape, is 
beyond the power of Congress under the existing rule of the 
constitution. No income-tax, for instance, can be laid on the 
general incomes of the United States, that shall be universal 
throughout the States. An income-tax can be levied, but it 
must be levied in proportion to the representation. It is as 
though our Chancellor of the Exchequer, in collecting an in- 
come-tax, were obliged to demand the same amount of contri- 
bution from the town of Chester as from the town of Liver- 
pool, because both Chester and Liverpool return two Members 
to Parliament. In fitting his tax to the capacity of Chester, he 
would be forced to allow Liverpool to escape unscathed. No 
skill in money matters on the part of the Treasury Secretary, 
and no aptness for finance on the part of the Committee on 
Ways and Means, can avail here. The constitution must aj)- 
parently be altered before any serviceable resort can be had to 
direct taxation. And yet, at such an emergency as that now 
existing, direct taxation Avould probably give more ready assist- 
ance than can be afforded either by the Customs or the Excise. 

It has been stated to me that this difficulty in the way of di- 
rect taxation can be overcome without any change in the con- 
stitution. Congress could only levy from Rhode Island the 
same amount of income-tax that it might levy from Iowa; but 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 531 

it will be competent to the legislature of Rhode Island itself to 
levy what income-tax it may please on itself, and to devote the 
proceeds to national or federal purposes. Rhode Island may 
do so ; and so may Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and 
the Other rich Atlantic States. They may tax themselves ac- 
cording to their riches, while Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and such- 
like States are taxing themselves according to their poverty. 
I cannot myself think that it would be well to trust to the gen- 
erosity of the sejDarate States for the finances needed by the 
national Government. We should not willingly trust to York- 
shire or Sussex to give us their contributions to the national 
income, especially if Yorkshire and Sussex had small Houses of 
Commons of their own, in which that question of giving might 
be debated. It may be very well for Rhode Island or New 
York to be patriotic ! But what shall be done wdth any State 
that declines to evince such patriotism? The legislatures of 
the different States may be invited to impose a tax of 5 per 
cent, on all incomes in each State ; but what will be done if 
Pennsylvania, for instance, should decline, or Illinois should 
hesitate? What if the legislature of Massachusetts should 
offer 6 per cent., or that of New Jersey decide that 4 per cent, 
was sufficient? For a while the arrangement might possibly 
be made to answer the desired purpose. During the first ebul- 
lition of high feeling, the different States concerned might pos- 
sibly vote the amount of taxes required for federal purposes. 
I fear it would not be so, but we may allow that the chance is 
on the card. But it is not conceivable that such an arrange- 
ment should be continued when, after a year or two, men came 
to talk over the war with calmer feelings and a more critical 
judgment. The State legislatures would become inquisitive, 
opinionative, and probably factious. They would be unwilling 
to act in so great a matter under the dictation of the federal 
Congress ; and by degrees one, and then another, would de- 
cline to give its aid to the central government. However 
broadly the acknowledgment may have been made, that the 
levying of direct taxes was necessary for the nation, each State 
-would be tempted to argue that a wrong mode and a wrong 
rate of levying had been adopted, and words would be forth- 
coming instead of money. A resort to such a mode of taxa- 
tion would be a bad security for government Stock. 

All matters of taxation, moreover, should be free from any 
taint of generosity. A man who should attempt to lessen the 
burdens of his country by gifts of money to its Exchequer would 
be laying his country under an obligation, for which his coun- 



532 NORTH AMERICA. 

try would not thank him. The gifts here would be from States, 
and not from individuals ; but the principle would be the same. 
I cannot imagine that the United States' Government would be 
wiUing to owe its revenue to the good will of different States, 
or its want of revenue to their caprice. If under such an ar- 
rangement the western States were to decline to vote the quota 
of income-tax or property-tax to which the eastern States had 
agreed, — and in all probability they would decline, — they would 
in fact be seceding. They would thus secede from the Ijurdens 
of their general country ; but in such event no one could accuse 
such States of unconstitutional secession. 

It is not easy to ascertain with precision what is the present 
amount of debt due by the United States ; nor probably has 
any tolerably accurate guess been yet given of the amount to 
which it may be extended during the present war. A state- 
ment made in the House of Representatives, by Mr. Sj^aulding, 
a member of the Committee of Ways and Means, on the 29th 
of January last, may perhaps be taken as giving as trustworthy 
information as any that can be obtained. I have changed Mr. 
Spaulding's figures from dollars into pounds, that they may be 
more readily understood by English readers. 

There was Due up to July 1, 1861 £18,173,566 

" Added in July and August 6,379,357 

*' Borrowed in August 10,000,000 

*' Borrowed in October 10,000,000 

" Borrowed in November 10,000,000 

" Amount of Treasury Demand Notes issued 7,800,000 

£61,352,923 

This was the amount of the debt due up to January 
15th, 1862. Mr. SjDaulding then calculates that the sum re- 
quired to carry on the Government up to July 1st, 1862, will 
be 68,647,0'7'7^. And that a further sum of 110,000,000/. will 
be wanted on or before the 1st of July, 1863. Thus the debt 
at that latter date would stand as follows : — 

Amount of Debt up to January, 1862 £61,352,923 

Added by July 1st, 1862 68,647,077 

Again added by July 1st, 1863 110,000,000 

£240,000,000 

The first of these items may no doubt be taken as accurate. 
The second has probably been founded on facts which leave 
little doubt as to its substantial truth. The third, which pro- 
fesses to give the proposed expense of the war for the forth- 
coming year, viz. from 1st July, 1862, to 30th June, 1863, must 



■■Ml 



THE FINANCIAL POSITION. 533 

necessarily have been obtained by a very loose estimate. No 
one can say what may be the condition of the country during 
the next year, — whether the war may then be raging through- 
out the southern States, or whether the war may not have 
ceased altogether. The North knows little or nothing of the 
capacity of the South. How little it knows may be surmised 
from the fact that the whole southern army of Virginia retreat- 
ed from their position at Manassas before the northern generals 
knew that they were moving ; and that when they were gone 
no word whatever was left of their numbers. I do not believe 
that the northern Government is even yet able to make any 
probable conjecture as to the number of troops which the south- 
ern confederacy is maintaining, and if this be so, they can cer- 
tainly make no trustworthy estimates as to their own expenses 
for the ensuing year. 

Two hundred and forty millions is, however, the sum named 
by a gentleman presumed to be conversant with the matter, as 
the amount of debt which may be expected by Midsummer, 
1863 ; and if the war be continued till then, it will probably be 
found that he has not exceeded the mark. It is right, howev- 
er, to state that Mr. Chase in his estimate does not rate the fig- 
ures so high. He has given it as his opinion that the debt will 
be about one hundred and four millions in July, 1862, and one 
hundred and eighty milUons in July, 1863. As to the first 
amount, with reference to which a tolerably accurate calcula- 
tion may probably be made, I am inclined to prefer the esti- 
mate as given by the member of the committee ; and as to the 
^ other, which hardly, as I think, admits of any calculation, his 
calculation is at any rate as good as that made in the Treasury. 

But it is the immediate want of funds, and not the prospect- 
ive debt of the country, which is now doing the damage. In 
this opinion Mr. Chase will probably agree with me ; but read- 
ers on this side of the water will receive what I say with a smile. 
Such a state of affairs is certainly one that has not uncommonly 
been reached by financiers ; it has also often been experienced 
by gentlemen in the management of their private affairs. It 
has been common in Ireland, and in London has created the 
wealth of the pawnbrokers. In the States at the present time 
the government is very much in this condition. The prospect- 
ive wealth of the country is almost unbounded, but there is 
great difiiculty in persuading any pawnbroker to advance money 
on the pledge. In February last Mr. Chase was driven to ob- 
tain the sanction of the legislature for paying the national cred- 
itors by bills drawn at twelve months' date, and bearing 6 per 



534 NOETH AMERICA. 

cent, interest. It is the old story of the tailor who calls with 
his little account, and draws on his insolvent debtor at ninety 
days. If the insolvent debtor be not utterly gone as regards 
solvency he will take up the bill when due, even though he may 
not be able to pay a simple debt. But then, if he be utterly in- 
solvent, he can do neither the one nor the other ! The Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, when he asked for permission to accept 
these bills, — or to issue these certificates, as he calls them, — ac- 
knowledged to pressing debts of over five millions sterling 
which he could not pay ; and to further debts of eight millions 
which he could not pay, but which he termed floating ; — debts, 
if I understand him, which were not as yet quite pressing. Now 
I imagine that to be a lamentable condition for any Chancellor 
of an Exchequer, — especially as a confession is at the same 
time made that no advantageous borrowing is to be done under 
the existing circumstances. When a Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer confesses that he cannot borrow on advantageous 
terms, the terms within his reach must be very bad indeed. 
This position is indeed a sad one, and at any rate justifies me 
in stating that the immediate want of funds is severely felt. 

But the very arguments which have been used to prove that 
the country will be ultimately crushed by the debt, are those 
which I should use to prove that it will not be crushed. A 
com2:)arison has more than once been made between the man- 
ner in which our debt was made, and that in which the debt 
of the United States is now being created ; and the great point 
raised in our favour is, that while Ave were borrowing money 
Ave were also taxing ourselves, and that Ave raised as much by 
taxes as Ave did by loans. But it is too early in the day to 
deny to the Americans the credit Avhich Ave thus take to our- 
selves. We Avere a tax-paying nation Avhen Ave commenced 
those Avars Avliich made our great loans necessary, and only 
went on in that practice Avhich Avas habitual to us. I do not 
think that the Americans could have taxed themselves Avith 
greater alacrity than they have shown. Let us Avait, at any 
rate, till they shall have had time for the operation, before Ave 
blame them for not making it. It is then argued that Ave in 
England did not borroAV nearly so fast as they have borroAved 
in the States. That is true. ]3ut it must be remembered that 
the dimensions and proportions of Avars now are infinitely 
greater than they Avere Avhen Ave began to borrow. Does any 
one imagine that Ave Avould not have borroAved faster, if by 
faster borroAving Ave could have closed the Avar more speedily? 
Things go faster noAV than they did then. Borrowing for the 



THE riNANCIAL POSITION. 535 

sake of a war may l>e a bad thing to do, — as also it may be a 
good thing ; but if it be done at all, it should be so done as to 
bring the war to the end with what greatest despatch may be 
possible. 

The only fair comparison, as it seems to me, w^hich can be 
drawn between the two countries with reference to their debts, 
and the condition of each under its debt, should be made to 
depend on the amount of the debt and probable ability of the 
country to bear that burden. The amount of the debt must 
be calculated by the interest payable on it, rather than by the 
figures representing the actual sum due. If we debit the Unit- 
ed States Government with seven per cent, on all the money 
borrowed by them, and presume that amount to have reached 
in July, 1863, the sum named by Mr. Spaulding, they w^ill then 
have loaded themselves with an annual charge of 16,800,000^. 
sterling. It wdll have been an immense achievement to have 
accomplished in so short a time, but it will by no means equal 
the annual sum wdth which we are charged. And, moreover, 
the comparison will have been made in a manner that is hardly 
fair to the Americans. We pay our creditors three per cent, 
now that we have arranged our aifairs, and have settled down 
into the respectable position of an old gentleman w^hose estates, 
though deeply mortgaged, are not overmortgaged. But we 
did not get our money at three per cent, while our Avars were 
on hand, and there yet existed some doubt as to the manner in 
which they might be terminated. 

This attempt, however, at guessing what may be the proba- 
ble amount of the debt at the close of the war is absolutely 
futile. No one can as yet conjecture Avhen the w^ar may be 
over, or what collateral expenses may attend its close. It may 
be the case that the government in fixing some boundary be- 
tween the future United States and the future southern Con- 
federacy, will be called on to advance a very large sum of mon- 
ey as compensation for slaves who shall have been liberated 
in the border States, or have been swept down south into the 
cotton regions with the retreating hordes of the southern army. 
The total of the bill cannot be reckoned up while the work is 
still unfinished. But, after all, that question as to the amount 
of the bill is not to us the question of the greatest interest. 
Whether the debt shall amount to two, or three, or even to 
four hundred millions sterhng, — whether it remain fixed at its 
present modest dimensions, or swell itself out to the magnifi> 
cent proportions of our British debt, — will the resources of the 
country enable it to bear such a burden? Will it be found 



536 NORTH AMERICA. 

that the Americans share with us that elastic power of endur- 
ance which has enabled us to bear a weight that would have 
ruined any other people of the same number ? Have they the 
thews and muscles, the energy and endurance, the power of 
carrying which we possess ? They have got our blood in their 
veins, and have these qualities gone with the blood ? It is of 
little avail either to us or to the truth that we can show some 
difference between our position and their position which may 
seem to be in our favour. They, doubtless, could show other 
points of difference on the other side. With us, in the early 
years of this century, it was a contest for life and death, in 
which we could not stop to count the cost, — in which we be- 
lieved that we were fighting for all that we cared to call our 
own, and in which we were resolved that we would not be 
beaten, as long as we had a man to fight and a guinea to spend. 
Fighting in this mind we won. Had we fought in any other 
mind, I think I may say that we should not have won. To 
the Americans of the northern States this also is a contest for 
life and death. I will not here stay to argue whether this need 
have been so. I think they are right ; but this at least must 
be accorded to them — that having gone into this matter of 
civil war, it behoves them to finish it with credit to themselves. 
There are many Englishmen who think that we were wrong to 
undertake the French war ; but there is, I take it, no English- 
man who thinks that we ought to have allowed ourselves to be 
beaten when we had undertaken it. To the Americans it is 
now a contest of life and death. They also cannot stop to 
count the cost. They also will go on as long as they have a 
dollar to spend or a man to fight. 

It appears that we were paying fourteen millions a year in- 
terest on our national debt in the year 1V96. I take this state- 
ment from an article in 'The Times,' in which the question of 
the finances of the United States is handled. But our popula- 
tion in 1796 was only sixteen millions. I estimate the popula- 
tion of the northern section of the United States, as the States 
will be after the war, at twenty-two millions. In the article 
alluded to these northern Americans are now stated to be twen- 
ty millions. If then we, in 1796, could pay fourteen millions a 
year with a population of sixteen millions, the United States, 
with a population of twenty or twenty-two millions, will be 
able to pay the sixteen or seventeen millions sterling of inter- 
est which will become due from them, — if their circumstances 
of payment are as good as were ours. They can do that and 
more than that if they have the same means per man as we had. 



THE POST-OFFICE. 637 

And as the means per man resolves itself at last into the labour 
per man, it may be said that they can pay what we could pay, 
if they can and will w^ork as hard as w^e could and did work. 
That which did not crush us will not crush them, if their future 
energy be equal to our past energy. 

And on this question of energy I think that there is no need 
for doubt. Taking man for man and million for million, the 
Americans are equal to the English in intellect and industry. 
They create wealth at any rate as fast as we have done. They 
develop their resources, and open out the currents of trade, 
with an energy equal to our own. They are always at work, 
improving, utilizing, and creating. Austria, as I take it, is suc- 
cumbing to monetary difficulties, not because she has been ex- 
travagant, but because she has been slow at progress ; — because 
it has been the work of her rulers to repress rather than encour- 
age the energies of her people; because she does not improve, 
utilize, and create. England has mastered her monetary diffi- 
culties, because the genius of her government and her people 
has been exactly opposite to the genius of Austria. And the 
States of America will master their money difficulties, because 
they are born of England, and are not born of Austria. What ! 
Shall our eldest child become bankrupt in its first trade diffi- 
culty; be utterly ruined by its first little commercial embar- 
rassment ? The child bears much too strong a resemblance to 
its parent for me to think so. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE POST-OFFICE. 

Any EngHshman or Frenchman residing in the American 
States cannot fail to be struck with the inferiority of the Post- 
office arrangements in that country to those by which they are 
accommodated in their own country. I have not been a resi- 
dent in the States, and as a traveller might probably have passed 
the subject without special remark, were it not that the service 
of the Post-office has been my own profession for many years. 
I could therefore hardly fail to observe things which to another 
man would have been of no material moment. At first I was 
inclined to lean heavily in my judgment upon the deficiencies 
of a department which must be of primary importance to a 
commercial nation. It seemed that among a people so intelli- 
gent, and so quick in all enterprises of trade, a well-arranged 
Post-office would have been held to be absolutely necessary, 

Z 2 



538 NORTH AMERICA. 

and that all difficulties would have been made to succumb in 
their eftbrts to put that establishment, if no other, upon a proper 
footing. But as I looked into the matter, and in becoming ac- 
quainted with the circumstances of the Post-office learned the 
extent of the difficulties absolutely existing, I began to think 
that a very great deal had been done, and that the fault, as to 
that which had been left undone, rested, not with the Post-office 
officials, but was attributable partly to political causes altogeth- 
er outside the Post-office, and partly, — perhaps chiefly, — to the 
nature of the country itself. 

It is, I think, undoubtedly true that the amount of accommo- 
dation given by the Post-office of the States is small, — ^as com- 
pared with that aflbrded in some other countries, and that that 
accommodation is lessened by delays and uncertainty. The 
point which first struck me was the inconvenient hours at which 
mails were brought in and despatched. Here, in England, it 
is the object of our Post-office to carry the bulk of our letters 
at night ; to deliver them as early as possible in the morning, 
and to collect them and take them aAvay for despatch as late as 
may be in the day ; — so that the merchant may receive his let- 
ters before the beginning of his day's business, and despatch 
them after its close. The bulk of our letters is handled in this 
manner, and the advantage of such an arrangement is manifest. 
But it seemed that in the States no such practice prevailed. 
Letters arrived at any hour in the day miscellaneously, and 
were despatched at any hour, and I found that the postmaster 
at one town could never tell me with certainty when letters 
would arrive at another. If the towns were distant, I would 
be told that the conveyance might take about two or three 
days ; if they were near, that my letter would get to hand, 
" some time to-morrow." I ascertained, moreover, by painful 
experience that the whole of a mail would not always go for- 
ward by the first desj^atch. As regarded myself this had ref- 
erence chiefly to English letters and newspapers. — " Only a 
part of the mail has come," the clerk would tell me. With us 
the owners of tliat part which did not " come," would consider 
themselves greatly aggrieved and make loud complaint. But, 
in the States, complaints made against official departments are 
held to be of little moment. 

Letters also in the States are subject to great delays by ir- 
regularities on railways. One train does not hit the town of 
its destination before another train, to which it is nominally 
fitted, has been started on its journey. The mail trains are 
not boimd to wait ; and thus, in the large cities, far distant 



THE POST-OFFICE. 539 

from New York, great irregularity prevails. It is, I think, 
owing to this, — at any rate partly to this, — that the system of 
telegraphing has become so prevalent. It is natural that this 
should be so between towns which are in the due course of 
j)Ost perhaps forty-eight hours asunder ; but the uncertainty of 
the post increases the habit, to the profit, of course, of the com- 
panies which own the wires, — but to the manifest loss of the 
Post-office. 

But the deficiency Avhich struck me most forcibly in the 
American Post-office, was the absence of any recognized offi- 
cial delivery of letters. The United States Post-office does 
not assume to itself the duty of taking letters to the houses of 
those for whom they are intended, but holds itself as having 
completed the work for which the original postage has been 
paid, when it has brought them to the window of the Post- 
office of the town to which they are addressed. It is true that 
in most large towns, — though by no means in all, — a separate 
arrangement is made by which a delivery is afforded to those 
who are willing to pay a further sum for that further service ; 
but the recognized official mode of delivery is from the office 
w^indow. The merchants and persons in trade have boxes at 
the windows, for which they pay. Other old-established in- 
habitants in towns, and persons in receipt of a considerable 
correspondence, receive their letters by the subsidiary carriers 
and pay for them separately. But the poorer classes of the com- 
munity, those persons among which it is of such paramount 
importance to increase the blessing of letter writing, obtain 
their letters from the Post-office windows. 

In each of these cases the practice acts to the prejudice of the 
department. In order to escape the tax on delivery, which 
varies from two cents to one cent a letter, all men in trade, 
and many who are not in trade, hold office boxes ; consequently 
immense space is required. The space given at Chicago, both 
to the public without and to the officials within, for such de- 
livery, is more than four times that required at Liverpool for 
the same purpose. But Liverpool is three times the size of 
Chicago. The corps of clerks required for the window de- 
livery is very great, and the whole affiiir is cumbrous in the 
extreme. The letters at most offices are given out through 
little windows, to which the inquirer is obliged to stoop. 
There he finds himself opposite to a pane of glass with a little 
hole ; and when the clerk within shakes his head at him, he 
rarely believes but Avhat his letters are there if he could only 
reach them. But in the second case, the tax on the delivery, 



540 NORTH AMERICA. 

which is intended simply to pay the wages of the men who 
take them out, is paid with a bad grace ; it robs the letter of 
its charm, and forces it to present itself in the guise of a 
burden. It makes that disagreeable which for its own sake 
tlie Post-office should strive in every way to make agreeable. 
This practice, moreover, operates as a direct prevention to a 
class of correspondence, which furnishes in England a large 
proportion of the revenue of the Post-office. Mercantile houses 
in our large cities send out thousands of trade circulars, paying- 
postage on them; but such circulars would not be received, 
either in England or elsewhere, if a demand for postage were 
made on their delivery. Who does not receive these circulars 
in our country by the dozen, consigning them generally to the 
waste-paper basket, after a most cursory inspection ? As re- 
gards the sender, the transaction seems to us often to be very 
vain ; but the Post-office gets its penny. So also would the 
American Post-office get its three cents. 

But the main objection in my eyes to the American Post- 
office system, is this, — that it is not brought nearer to the 
poorer classes. Everybody w^'ites or can write in America, 
and therefore the correspondence of their millions, should be, 
million for million, at any rate equal to ours. But it is not so ; 
and this, I think, comes from the fact that communication by 
Post-office is not made easy to the people generally. Such 
communication is not found to be easy by a man who has to 
attend at a post office window on the chance of receiving a 
letter. When no arrangement more comfortable than that is 
provided, the Post-office will be used for the necessities of letter- 
Avriting, but will not be esteemed as a luxury. And thus not 
only do the people lose a comfort which they might enjoy, but 
the Post-office also loses that revenue which it might make. 

I have said that the correspondence circulating in the United 
States is less than that of the United Kingdom. In making 
any comparison between them I am obliged to arrive at facts, 
or rather at the probabilities of facts, in a somewhat circuitous 
mode, as the Americans have kept no account of the number 
of letters which pass through their post-offices in a year. We 
can, however, make an estimate which, if incorrect, shall not at 
any rate be incorrect against them. The gross postal revenue 
of the United States, for the year ended 30th June, 1861, was 
in round figures 1,700,000/. This was the amount actually 
earned, exclusive of a sum of 140,000Z. paid to the Post-office 
by the government for the carriage of what is called in that 
country free mail matter ; otherwise, books, letters, and parcels 



THE POST-OFFICE. 541 

franked by members of Congress. The gross postal revenue 
of the United Kingdom was in the last year, in round figures, 
3,358,000/., exclusive of a sum of 179,000/. claimed as earned 
for carrying official postage, and also exclusive of 127,866/., 
that being the amount of money order commission which in 
this country is considered a part of the Post-office revenue. 
In the United States there is at present no money order office. 
In the United Kingdom the sum of 3,358,000/. was earned by 
the conveyance and delivery of 

593 millions of letters, 
73 millions of newspapers, 
12 millions of books. 

What number of each was conveyed through the post in the 
United States we have no means of knowing ; but presuming 
the average rate of postage on each letter in the States to be 
the same as it is in England, and presuming also that letters, 
newspapers, and books circulated in the same proportion there 
as they do with us, the sum above named of 1,700,000/. Avill 
have been earned by carrying about 300 millions of letters. 
But the average rate of postage in the States is, in fact, higher 
than it is in England. The ordinary single rate of postage 
there is three cents or three half-pence, whereas with ns it is a 
penny ; and if three half-pence might be taken as the average 
rate in the United States, the number of letters would be re- 
duced from 300 to 200 millions a year. There is however a 
class of letters which in the States are passed through the Post- 
office at the rate of one half-j^enny a letter, whereas there is no 
rate of postage with us less than a penny. Taking these half- 
penny letters into consideration, I am disposed to regard the 
average rate of American postage at about five farthings, which 
would give the number of letters at 250 millions. We shall at 
any rate be safe in saying that the number is considerably less 
than 300 millions, and that it does not amount to half the num- 
ber circulated with ns. But the difference between our popu- 
lation and their population is not great. The population of the 
States during the year in question was about 27 millions, ex- 
clusive of slaves, and that of the British isles was about 29 mill- 
ions. No doubt, in the year named, the correspondence of the 
States had been somewhat disturbed by the rebellion ; but that 
disturbance, up to the end of June, 1861, had been very trifling. 
The division of the southern from the northern States, as far as 
the Post-office was concerned, did not take place till the end 
of May, 1861 ; and therefore but one month in the year was af- 



542 NORTH AMERICA. 

fected by the actual secession of the South. The gross postal 
revenue of the States which have seceded was, for the year prior 
to secession, twelve hundred thousand five liundred dollars, and 
for that one month of June it would therefore have been a lit- 
tle over one hundred tliousand dollars, or 20,000/. That sum 
may therefore be presumed to have been abstracted by seces- 
sion from the gross annual revenue of the Post-office. Trade, 
also, was no doubt injured by the disturbance in the country, 
and the circulation of letters was, as a matter of course, to some 
degree affected by this injury ; but it seems that the gross rev- 
enue of 1861 was less than that of 1860 by only one thirty- 
sixth. I think, therefore, that we may say, making all allow- 
ance that can be fairly made, that the number of letters circu- 
lating in the United Kingdom is more than double th-at which 
circulates, or ever has circulated, in the United States; 

That this is so, I attribute not to any difference in the people 
of the two countries, — not to an aptitude for letter writing 
among us which is wanting with the Americans, — but to the 
greater convenience and wider accommodation of our own 
Post-office. As I have before stated, and will presently en- 
deavour to show, this wider accommodation is not altogether 
the result of better management on our part. Our circum- 
stances as regards the Post-office have had in them less of dif- 
ficulties than theirs. But it has arisen in great part from bet- 
ter management ; and in nothing is their deficiency so conspic- 
uous as in the absence of a free delivery for their letters. 

In order that the advantages of the Post-office should reach 
all persons, the delivery of letters should extend not only to 
towns, but to the country also. In France all letters are deliv- 
ered free. However remote may be the position of a house or 
cottage, it is not too remote for the postman. "With us all let- 
ters are not delivered ; but the exceptions refer to distant soli- 
tary houses and to localities which are almost without corre- 
spondence. But in the United States there is no free delivery, 
and there is no delivery at all except in the large cities. In 
small towns, in villages, even in the suburbs of the largest cit- 
ies, no such accommodation is given. Whatever may be the 
distance, people expecting letters must send for them to the 
Post-office ; — and they who do not expect them leave their let- 
ters uncalled for. Brother Jonathan goes out to fish in these 
especial waters with a very large net. The little fish, which 
are profitable, slip through ; but the big fish, which are by no 
means ])rofitable, are caught, — often at an expense greater than 
their value. 



THE POST-OFFICE. 543 

There are other smaller sins upon which I could put my fin- 
ger, — and would do so were I writing an official report upon 
the subject of the American Post-office. In lieu of doing so, I 
will endeavour to explain how much the States' office has done 
in this matter of affording Post-office accommodation, — and 
how great have been the difficulties in the way of Post-office 
reformers in that country. 

In the first place, when we compare ourselves to them, we 
must remember, that we live in a tea-cup, and they in a wash- 
ing-tub. As compared with them we inhabit towns which are 
close to each other. Our distances, as compared with theirs, 
are nothing. From London to Liverpool the line of railway 
traverses about two hundred miles, but the mail train which 
conveys the bags for Liverpool carries the correspondence of 
probably four or five millions of persons. The mail train from 
New York to Buffalo passes over about four hundred miles, 
and on its route serves not one million. A comparison of this 
kind might be made with the same effect between any of our 
great internal mail routes and any of theirs. Consequently, the 
expense of conveyance to them is, per letter, very much greater 
than with us, and the American Post-office is as a matter of 
necessity driven to an economy in the use of railways for the 
Post-office service w^hich we are not called on to practise. 
From New York to Chicago is nearly 1000 miles. From New 
York to St. Louis is over 1600. I need not say that in En- 
gland we know nothing of such distances, and that therefore 
our task has been comparatively easy. Nevertheless the States 
have followed in our track, and have taken advantage of Sir 
Rowland Hill's Avise audacity in the reduction of postage with 
greater quickness than any other nation but our ow^n. Through 
all the States letters pass for three cents over a distance less 
than 3000 miles. For distances above 3000 miles the rate is 
ten cents, or five-pence. This increased rate has special refer- 
ence to the mails for California, which are carried daily across 
the whole continent at a cost to the States Government of two 
hundred thousand pounds a year. 

With us the chief mail trains are legally under the manage- 
ment of the Postmaster-General. He fixes the hours at which 
they shall start and arrive, being of course bound by certain 
stipulations as to pace. He can demand trains to run over any 
line at any hour, and can in this way secure the punctuality of 
mail transportation. Of course such interference on the part 
of a government official in the working of a railway is attended 
with a very heavy expense to the Government. Though the 



544 NORTH AMEEICA. 

British Post-office can demand tlie use of trains at any hour, 
and as regards those trains can make the despatch of mails par- 
amount to all other matters, the British Post-office cannot fix 
the price to be paid for such work. This is generally done by 
arbitration, and of course for such services the payment is very 
high. No such practice prevails in the States. The Govern- 
ment has no power of using the mail lines as they are used by 
our Post-office, nor could the expense of such a practice be 
borne or nearly borne by the proceeds of letters in the States. 
Consequently the Post-office is put on a par with ordinary cus- 
tomers, and such trains are used for mail matter as the direct- 
ors of each line may see fit to use for other matter. Hence it 
occurs that no oftence against the Post-office is committed 
when the connection between different mail trains is broken. 
The Post-office takes the best it can get, paying as other cus- 
tomers pay, and grumbling as other customers grumble when 
the service rendered falls short of that which has been prom- 
ised. 

It may, I think, easily be seen that any system such as ours, 
carried across so large a country, would go on increasing in 
cost at an enormous ratio. The greater the distance, the 
greater is the difficulty in securing the proper fitting of fast- 
running trains. And moreover, it must be remembered that 
the American lines have been got up on a very different foot- 
ing from ours, at an expense per mile of probably less than a 
fifth of that laid out on our railways. Single lines of rail are 
common, even between great towns with large traffic. At the 
present moment — May, 1862 — the only railway running into 
Washington, that namely from Baltimore, is a single line over 
the greater distance. The whole thing is necessarily worked 
at a cheaper rate than with us ; not because the people are 
poorer, but because the distances are greater. As this is the 
case throughout the whole railway system of the country, it 
cannot be expected that such despatch and punctuality should 
be achieved in America as are achieved here, in England, or in 
France. As population and wealth increase, it will come. In 
the mean time that which has been already done over the ex- 
tent of the vast North American continent is very wonderful. 
I think, therefore, that complaint should not be made against 
the Washington Post-office, either on account of the inconven- 
ience of the hours, or on the head of occasional irregularity. 
So much has been done in reducing the rate to three cents, and 
in giving a daily mail throughout the States, that the depart- 
ment should be praised for energy, and not blamed for apathy. 



THE POST-OFFICE. 545 

In the year ended 30th June, 1861, the gross revenue of the 
Post-office of the States Avas, as I have stated, 1,700,000/. In 
the same year its expenditure was in round figures 2,720,000/. 
Consequently there was an actual loss, to be made up out of 
general taxation, amounting to 1,020,000/. In the accounts of 
the American officers this is lessened by 140,000/., that sum 
having been arbitrarily fixed by the Government as the amount 
earned by the Post-office in carrying free mail matter. We 
have a similar system, in computing the value of the service 
rendered by our Post-office to the Government in carrying 
government despatches; but with us the amount named as 
the compensation depends on the actual weight carried. If 
the matter so carried be carried solely on the Government 
service, as is I believe the case with us, any such claim on be- 
half of the Post-office is apparently unnecessary. The Crown 
works for the Crown, as the right hand works for the left. The 
Post-office pays no rates or taxes, contributes nothing to the 
poor, runs its mails on turnpike roads free of toll, and gives 
receipts on unstamped paper. With us no payment is in truth 
made, though the Post-office in its accounts presumes itself to 
have received the money. But in the States the sum named is 
handed over by the State Treasury to the Post-office Treasury. 
Any such statement of credit does not in efiect alter the real 
fact, that over a million sterling is required as a subsidy by the 
American Post-office, in order that it may be enabled to pay its 
way. In estimating the expenditure of the office the depart- 
ment at Washington debits itself with the sums paid for the 
ocean transit of its mails, amounting to something over 150,000/. 
We also now do the same, with the much greater sum paid by 
us for such service, which now amounts to 949,228/., or nearly 
a million sterling. Till lately this was not paid out of the Post- 
office moneys, and the Post-office revenue was not debited with 
the amount. 

Our gross Post-office revenue is, as I have said, 3,358,250/. 
As before explained, this is exclusive of the amount earned by 
the money order department, which, though managed by the 
authorities of the Post-office, cannot be called a part of the 
Post-office ; and exclusive also of the official postage, which is, 
in fact, never received. The expenditure of our British Post- 
office, inclusive of the sum paid for the ocean mail service, is 
3,064,527/. We therefore make a net profit of 293,723/. out of 
the Post-office, as compared with a loss of 1,020,000/., on the 
part of the United States. 

But perhaps the greatest difficulty with which the American 



546 NORTH AMERICA. 

Post-office is burdened, is that "free mail matter" to which I 
have alluded, for carrying which, the Post-office claims to earn 
140,000^., and for the carriage of which, it might as fairly claim 
to earn 1,350,000^., or half the amount of its total expenditure, 
for I w^as informed by a gentleman whose knowledge on the 
subject could not be doubted, that the free mail matter so car- 
ried, equalled in bulk and weight all that other matter which 
was not carried free. To such an extent has the privilege of 
franking been carried in the States ! All members of both 
Houses frank what they please, — for in effect the privilege is 
stretched to that extent. All Presidents of the Union, past 
and present, can frank, as, also, all Vice-Presidents, past and 
present; and there is a special act, enabling the widow of 
President Polk to frank. Why it is that widows of other Pres- 
idents do not agitate on the matter, I cannot understand. And 
all the Secretaries of State can frank ; and ever so many other 
public officers. There is no limit in number to the letters so 
franked, and the nuisance has extended itself to so huge a size, 
that members of Congress in giving franks, cannot write the 
franks themselves. It is illegal for them to depute to others 
the privilege of signing their names for this purpose, but it is 
known at the Post-office that it is done. I3ut even this is not 
the worst of it. Members of the House of Representatives have 
the power of sending through the post all those huge books 
which, with them as with us, grow out of Parliamentary de- 
bates and workings of Committees. This, under certain stip- 
ulations, is the case tilso in England ; but in England, luckily 
no one values them. In America, however, it is not so. A 
voter considers himself to be noticed if he gets a book. He likes 
to have the book bound, and the bigger the book may be, the 
more the compliment is relished. Hence it conies to pass that 
an enormous quantity of useless matter is printed and bound, 
only that it may be sent down to constituents and make a show 
on the parlor shelves of constituents' wives. The Post-office 
groans and becomes insolvent, and the country pays for the 
paper, the printing, and the binding. While the public ex- 
penses of the nation were very small, there was, perhaps, no 
reason why voters should not thus be indulged ; but now the 
matter is different, and it would be well that the conveyance 
by post of these Congressional libraries should be brought to 
an end. I was also assured that members very frequently ob- 
tain permission for the printing of a speech which has never 
been delivered, — and wdiich never will be delivered, — in order 
that copies may be circulated among their constituents. There 



THE POST-OFFICE. 547 

is in such an arrangement an ingenuity wliicli is i^eculinrly 
American in its nature. Everybody concerned is no doubt 
cheated by the system. The constituents are cheated; tlic 
pubhc, which pays, is cheated; and the Post-office is cheated. 
But the House is spared the hearing of the speech, and the re- 
sult on the whole is perhaps beneficial. 

We also, within the memory of many of us, had a frankiug 
privilege, which was peculiarly objectionable inasmuch as it 
oj^erated towards giving a free transmission of their letters by 
post to the rich, while no such privilege Avas within reach of 
the poor. But with us it never stretched itself to such an ex- 
tent as it has now achieved in the States. The number of let- 
ters for members was limited. The whole address was written 
by the franking member himself, and not much was sent in this 
way that was bulky. I am disposed to think that all govern- 
ment and Congressional jobs in the States bear the same pro- 
portion to government and Parliamentary jobs which have been 
in vogue amoug us. There has been an unblushing audacity 
in the public dishonesty, — what I may perhaps call the State 
dishonesty, — at Washington, wdiicli I think was hardly ever 
equalled in London. Bribery, I know, was disgracefully cur- 
rent in the days of Walpole, of Newcastle, and even of Castle- 
reagh ; — so current, that no Englishman has a right to hold up 
his own past government as a model of purity. But the cor- 
ruption with us did blush and endeavour to hide itself It was 
disgraceful to be bribed, if not so to offer bribes. But at Wash- 
ington corruption has been so common that I can hardly un- 
derstand how any honest man can have held uj) his head in the 
vicinity of the Capitol, or of the State office. 

But the country has, I think, become tired of this. Hitherto 
it has been too busy about its more important concerns, in ex- 
tending commerce, in making railways, in providing education 
for its youth, to think very much of what Avas being done 
at Washington. While the taxes Avere light and property 
was secure, while increasing population gave daily increasing 
strength to the nation, the people as a body Avere content Avith 
that theory of being governed by their little men. They gave 
a bad name to politicians, and alloAved politics, as they say, " to 
slide." But all this Avill be altered noAV. The tremendous ex- 
l^enditure of the last tAvelve months has alloAved dishonesty of 
so vast a grasp to make its ravages in the public pockets, that 
the evil Avill Avork its own cure. Taxes Avill be very high, and 
the people Avill recognize the necessity of having honest men to 
look after them. The nation can no longer aftbrd to be indif- 



548 NORTFI AMERICA. 

ferent about its Government, and will i\Y|iiire to kjiow wl»ere 
its money goes, and why it goes. This franking privilege is al- 
ready doomed, if not already dead. When I was in Washing- 
ton a Bill was passed through the Lower House by which it 
would be abolished altogether. When I left America its fate 
in the Senate was still doubtful, and I was told by many that 
that Bill w^ould not be allowed to become law without sundry 
alterations. But, nevertheless, I regard the franking privilege 
as doomed, and offer to the Washington Post-office officials my 
best congratulations on their coming deliverance. 

The Post-office in the States is also burdened by another ter- 
rible political evil, wdiich in itself is so heavy, that one would 
at first sight declare it to be enough to prevent any thing like 
efficiency. The whole of its staff is removeable every fourth 
year, — that is to say, on the election of every new President. 
And a very large proportion of its staff is thus removed jDeriod- 
ically to make way for those for whom a new President is bound 
to provide, by reason of their services in sending him to the 
White House. They have served him and he thus repays them 
by this use of his patronage in their favour. At four hundred 
and thirty-four Post-offices in the States, — those being the of- 
fices to which the highest salaries are attached, — the President 
has this power, and exercises it as a matter of course. He has 
the same power with reference, I believe, to all the appoint- 
ments held in the Post-office at Washington. This practice ap- 
plies by no means to the Post-office only. All the government 
clerks, — clerks employed by the central government at Wash- 
ington, — are subject to the same rule. And the rule has also 
been adopted in the various States with reference to State 
offices. 

To a stranger this practice seems so manifestly absurd, that 
he can hardly conceive it possible that a government service 
should be conducted on such terms. He cannot, in the first 
place, believe that men of sufficient standing before the world 
could be found to accept office under such circumstances ; and 
is led to surmise that men of insufficient standing must be em- 
ployed, and that there are other allurements to the office be- 
yond the very moderate salaries which are allowed. He can- 
not, moreover, understand how the duties can be conducted, 
seeing that men must be called on to resign their places as soon 
as they have learned to make themselves useful. And, finally, 
he is lost in amazement as he contemplates this barefaced pros- 
titution of the public employ to the vilest purposes of political 
manoeuvring. With us also patronage has been used for polit- 



THE POST-OFFICE. 549 

ical purposes, and to some small extent is still so used. We 
have not yet sufficiently recognized the fact, that in selecting a 
public servant nothing should be regarded but the advantage 
of the service in which he is to be employed. But we never, 
in the lowest times of our political corruption, ventured to throw 
over the question of service altogether, and to declare publicly, 
that the one and only result to be obtained by Government em- 
ployment w^as political support. In the States political corrup- 
tion has become so much a matter of course, that no American 
seems to be struck with the fact that the w^hole system is a sys- 
tem of robbery. 

From sheer necessity some of the old hands are kept on when 
these changes are made. Were this not done the w^ork would 
come absolutely to a dead lock. But it may be imagined how 
difficult it must be for men to carry through any improvements 
in a great department, when they have entered an office under 
such a system, and are liable to be expelled under the same. 
It is greatly to the praise of those who have been allowed to 
grow old in the service that so much has been done. No men, 
however, are more apt at such work than Americans, or more 
able to exert themselves at their posts. They are not idle. In- 
dependently of any question of remuneration, they are not in- 
different to the well-being of the work they have in hand. They 
are good pubhc servants, unless corruption come in their way. 

While speaking on the subject of patronage, I cannot but al- 
lude to tw^o appointments which had been made by political in- 
terest, and with the circumstances of Avhich I became acquaint- 
ed. In both instances a good place had been given to a gen- 
tleman by the in-coming President, — not in return for political 
support, but from motives of private friendship, — either his own 
friendship or that of some mutual friend. In both instances I 
heard the selection spoken of with the warmest praise, as though 
a noble act had been done in the nomination of a private friend 
instead of a political partisan. And yet in each case a man was 
appointed who knew nothing of his work ; w^ho, from age and 
circumstances, was not likely to become acquainted with his 
work ; who, by his appointment, kept out of the place those 
who did understand the work, and had earned a right to pro- 
motion by so understanding it. Two worthy gentlemen, — for 
they w^ere both worthy, — were pensioned on the government 
for a term of years under a false pretence. That this should 
have been done is not perhaps remarkable ; but it did seem re- 
markable to me that everybody regarded such appointments as 
a good deed — as a deed so exceptionably good as to be worthy 



650 NOKTH AMERICA. 

of great praise. I do not allude to these selections on account 
of tiie political vice shown by the Presidents in making them, 
"but on account of the political virtue; — in order that the na- 
ture of political virtue in the States may be understood. It 
had never occurred to any one to whom I spoke on the subject, 
that a President in bestowing such places was bound to look 
for efficient work in return for the pubHc money Avhich was to 
be paid. 

Before I end this chapter I must insert a few details respect- 
ing the Post-office of the States, which, though they may not 
be specially interesting to the general reader, will give some 
idea of the extent of the department. The total number of 
post-offices in the States on 30th June, 1861, was 28,586. With 
ns the number in England, Scotland, and Ireland, at the same 
period was about 11,400. The population served may be re- 
garded as nearly the same. Our lowest salary is 3/. per annum. 
In the States the remuneration is often much lower. It con- 
sists of a commission on the letters, and is sometimes less than 
ten shillings a year. The difficulty of obtaining persons to hold 
these offices, atid the amount of work which must thereby be 
thrown on what is called the "appointment branch," may be 
judged by the fact that 9235 of these offices were filled up by 
new nominations during the last year. When the patronage 
is of such a nature it is difficult to say which give most trouble, 
the places which nobody wishes to have, or those which every- 
body wishes to have. 

The total amount of postage on European letters, le., letters 
passing between the States and Europe, in the last year as to 
which accounts were kept between Washington and the Eu- 
ropean post-offices, was 275,000^. Of this over 150,000/. was 
on letters for the IJnited Kingdom; and 130,000/. was on let- 
ters carried by the Cunard packets. 

According to the accounts kept by the Washington office, 
the letters passing from the States to Europe and from Europe 
to the States are very nearly equal in number, about 101 going 
to Europe for every 100 received from IBlurope. But the num- 
ber of newspapers sent from tlie States is more than double the 
number received in the States from Europe. 

On 30th June, 1861, mails w^ere carried through the then loy- 
al States of the Union over 140,400 miles daily. Up to 31st 
May preceding, at which time the Government mails were run- 
ning all through the United States, 96,000 miles were covered 
in those States which had then virtually seceded, and which in 
the following month were taken out from the Post-office ac> 



THE POST-OFFICE. 551 

counts, — making a total of 236,400 miles daily. Of this mile- 
age something less than one third is effected by railways, at an 
average cost of about sixpence a mile. Our total mileage per 
day is 151,000 miles, of wliich 43,823 are done by railway, at a 
cost of about sevenpence-halfpenny per mile. 

As far as I could learn the servants of the Post-office are less 
liberally paid in the States than with us, — excepting as regards 
two classes. The first of these is that class which is paid by 
w^eekly w^ages, — such as letter-carriers and porters. Their re- 
muneration is of course ruled by the rate of ordinary wages in 
the country; and as ordinary wages are higher in the States 
than with us, such men are paid accordingly. The other class 
is that of postmasters at second-rate towns. They receive the 
same compensation as those at the largest towns ; — unless in- 
deed there be other compensation than those written in the 
books at Washington. A postmaster is paid a certain commis- 
sion on letters, till it amounts to 400^. per annum ; all above 
that going back to the Government. So also out of the fees 
paid for boxes at the window he receives any amount forth- 
coming, not exceeding 400^. a year ; making in all a maximum 
of 800X The postmaster of New York can get no more. But 
any moderately large town will give as much, and in this Avay 
an amount of patronage is provided w^hich in a political view 
is really valuable. 

But with all this the people have made their way, because 
they have been intelligent, industrious, and in earnest. And 
as the people have made their way, so has the Post-office. The 
number of its offices, the mileage it covers, its extraordinary 
cheapness, the rapidity with which it has been developed, are 
all proofs of great things done ; and it is by no means standing 
still even in these evil' days of war. Improvements are even 
now on foot, copied in a great measure from ourselves. Hith- 
erto the American office has not taken upon itself the task of 
returning to their writers undelivered and undeliverable let- 
ters. This it is now going to do. It is, as I have said, shak- 
ing off from itself that terrible incubus the franking privilege. 
And the expediency of introducing a money-order office into 
the States, connected with the Post-office as it is with us, is 
even now under consideration. Such an accommodation is 
much needed in the country ; but I doubt wdiether the present 
moment, looking at the fiscal state of the country, is well adapt- 
ed for establishing it. 

I was much struck by the great extravagance in small things 
manifested by the Post-office through the States, and have rea- 



552 NORTH AMERICA. 

son to believe that the same remark would be equally true with 
regard to other public establishments. They use needless forms 
without end, — making millions of entries which no one is ever 
expected to regard. Their expenditure in stationery might, I 
think, be reduced by one half, and the labour might be saved 
which is now wasted in the abuse of that useless stationery. 
Their mail-bags are made in a costly manner, and are often 
large beyond all proportion or necessity. I could greatly length- 
en this list if I were addressing myself solely to Post-office peo- 
ple ; but as I am not doing so I will close these semi-official re- 
marks, with an assurance to my colleagues in Post-office work 
on the other side of the water that I greatly respect what they 
have done, and trust that before long they may have renewed 
opportunities for the prosecution of their good work. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

AMERICAN HOTELS. 

I FIND it impossible to resist the subject of inns. As I have 
gone on with my journey, I have gone on with my book, and 
have spoken here and there of American hotels as I have en- 
countered them. But in the States the hotels are so large an 
institution, having so much closer and wider a bearing on social 
life than they do in any other country, that I feel myself bound 
to treat them in a separate chapter as a great national feature 
in themselves. They are quite as much thought of in the na- 
tion as the legislature, or judicature, or literature of the coun- 
try ; and any falling off in them, or any improvement in the ac- 
commodation given, would strike the community as forcibly as 
a change in the constitution, or an alteration in the franchise. 

Moreover I consider myself as qualified to write a chapter on 
hotels ; — not only on the hotels of America but on hotels gen- 
erally. I have myself been much too frequently a sojourner at 
hotels. I think I know what an hotel should be, and what it 
should not be ; and am almost inclined to believe, in my pride, 
that I could myself fill the position of a landlord with some 
chance of social success, though probably with none of satis- 
factory pecuniary results. 

Of all hotels known to me, I am inclined to think that the 
Swiss are the best. The things wanted at an hotel are, I fancy, 
mainly as follows : — a clean bedroom with a good and clean 
bed, — and with it also plenty of water. Good food, well dress- 
ed and served at convenient hours, which hours should on oc- 



AMERICAN HOTELS. 553 

casions be allowed to stretch themselves. Wines that shall be 
drinkable. Quick attendance. Bills that shall not be absolute- 
ly extortionate, smiling faces, and an absence of foul smells. 
There are many who desire more than this ; — who expect ex- 
quisite cookery, choice wines, subservient domestics, distin- 
guished consideration, and the strictest economy. But they 
are uneducated travellers who are going through the appren- 
ticeship of their hotel lives ; — who may probably never become 
free of the travellers' guild, or learn to distinguish that which 
they may fairly hope to attain from that which they can never 
accomplish. 

Taking them as a whole I think that the Swiss hotels are the 
best. They are perhaps a little close in the matter of cold wa- 
ter, but even as to this, they generally give way to pressure. 
The pressure, however, must not be violent, but gentle rather, 
and well continued. Their bedrooms are excellent. Their 
cookery is good, and to the outward senses is cleanly. The 
2)eople are civil. The whole work of the house is carried on 
upon fixed rules which tend to the comfort of the establish- 
ment. They are not cheap, and not always quite honest. But 
the exorbitance or dishonesty of their charges rarely exceeds a 
certain reasonable scale, and hardly ever demands the bitter 
misery of a remonstrance. 

The inns of the Tyrol are, I think, the cheapest I have known, 
aftbrding the traveller what he requires for half the price, or 
less than half, that demanded in Switzerland. But the other 
half is taken out in stench and nastiness. As tourists scatter 
themselves more profusely, the prices of the Tyrol will no doubt 
rise. Let us hope that increased prices will bring with them 
besoms, scrubbing-brushes, and other much needed articles of 
cleanliness. 

The inns of the north of Italy are very good, and indeed, the 
Italian inns throughout, as far as I know them, are much better 
than the name they bear. The ItaUans are a civil, kindly peo- 
ple, and do for you, at any rate, the best they can. Perhaps 
the unwary traveller may be cheated. Ignorant of the language, 
he may be called on to pay more than the man who sjDeaks it, 
and who can bargain in the Italian fashion as to price. It has 
often been my lot, I doubt not, to be so cheated. But then I 
have been cheated with a grace that has been worth all the mon- 
ey. The ordinary prices of Italian inns are by no means high. 

I have seldom thoroughly liked the inns of Germany which 
I have known. They are not clean, and water is very scarce. 
Smiles too are generally wanting, and I have usually fancied 

A A 



554 NORTH AMERICA. 

myself to be regarded as a piece of goods out of which so much 
profit was to be made. 

The dearest hotels I know are the French ; — and certainly 
not the best. In the provinces they are by no means so clean- 
ly as those of Italy. Their wines are generally abominable, 
and their cookery often disgusting. In Paris grand dinners 
may no doubt be had, and luxuries of every description, — ex- 
cept the luxury of comfort. Cotton-velvet sofas and ormolu 
clocks stand in the place of convenient furniture, and logs of 
wood at a franc a log fail to impart to you the heat which the 
freezing cold of a Paris winter demands. They used to make 
good coffee in Paris, but even that is a thing of the past. I 
fancy that they import their brandy from England, and manu- 
facture their own cigars. French wines you may get good at 
a Paris hotel ; but you would drink them as good and much 
cheaper if you bought them in London and took them with 
you. 

The worst hotels I know are in the Havana. Of course I do 
not speak here of chance mountain huts, or small far-off road- 
side hostels in winch the traveller may find himself from time 
to time. All such are to be counted apart, and must be judged 
on their merits, by the circumstances which surround them. 
But with reference to places of wide resort, nothing can beat 
the hotels of the Havana in filth, discomfort, habits of abomina- 
tion, and absence of everything which the traveller desires. 
All the world does not go to the Havana, and the subject is 
not, therefore, one of general interest. But in speaking of ho- 
tels at large, so much I find myself bound to say. 

In all the countries to which I have alluded the guests of the 
house are expected to sit down together at one table. Con- 
versation is at any rate possible, and there is the show if not 
the reality of society. 

And now one word as to English inns. I do not think that 
we Englishmen have any great right to be proud of them. The 
worst about them is that they deteriorate from year to year in- 
stead of becoming better. We used to hear much of the com- 
fort of the old English wayside inn, but the old English way- 
side inn has gone. The railway hotel has taken its place, and 
the railway hotel is too frequently gloomy, desolate, comfort- 
less, and almost suicidal. In England too, since the old days 
are gone, there are wanting the landlord's bow, and the kindly 
smile of his stout wife. Who now knows the landlord of an 
inn, or cares to inquire whether or no there be a landlady? 
The old welcome is wanting, and the cheery warm air which 



AMERICAN HOTELS. 555 

used to at one for the bad port and tough beef has passed away 
— while the port is still bad and the beef too often tough. 

In England, and only in England, as I believe, is maintained 
in hotel life the theory of solitary existence. The sojourner at 
an English inn, — unless he be a commercial traveller, and, as 
such, a member of a universal, peripatetic, tradesman's club, — 
lives alone. He has his breakfast alone, his dinner alone, his 
pint of wine alone, and his cup of tea alone. It is not consid- 
ered practicable that two strangers should sit at the same ta- 
ble, or cut from the same dish. Consequently his dinner is 
cooked for him separately, and the hotel keeper can hardly af- 
ford to give him a good dinner. He has two modes of life 
from which to choose. He either lives in a public room, — call- 
ed a coffee-room, and there occupies during his comfortless 
meal a separate small table too frequently removed from fire 
and light, though generally exposed to draughts ; or else he in- 
dulges in the luxury of a private sitting-room, and endeavours 
to find solace on an old horse-hair sofa, at the cost of seven 
shillings a day. His bedroom is not so arranged that he can 
use it as a sitting-room. Under either phase of life he can 
rarely find himself comfortable, and therefore he lives as little 
at an hotel as the circumstances of his business or of his pleas- 
ure will allow. I do not think that any of the requisites of 
a good inn are habitually to be found in .perfection at our 
Kings' Heads and White Horses, though the falling off is 
not so lamentably distressing as it sometimes is in other 
countries. The bedrooms are dingy rather than dirty. Ex- 
tra payment to servants will generally produce a tub of cold 
water. The food is never good, but it is usually eatable, and 
you may have it when you please. The wines are almost al- 
ways bad, but the traveller can fall back upon beer. The at- 
tendance is good, provided always that the payment for it is 
liberal. The cost is generally too high, and unfortunately 
grows larger and larger from year to year. SmiUng faces are 
out of the question unless specially paid for ; and as to that 
matter of foul smells there is often room for improvement. 
An EngHsh inn to a solitary traveller without employment is 
an embodiment of dreary desolation. The excuse to be made 
for this is that English men and women do not live much at 
inns in their own country. 

The American inn differs from all those of which I have made 
mention, and is altogether an institution apart, and a thing of 



itself Hotels in America are very much larger and more huT\ 



merous than in other countries. They are to be found in all 



556 ' NORTH AMERICA. 

towns, and I may almost say in all villages. In England and 
on the Continent we find them on the recognized routes of 
travel and in towns of commercial or social importance. On 
unfrequented roads and in villages there is usually some small 
house of public entertainment in which the unexpected travel- 
ler may obtain food and shelter, and in which the expected 
boon companions of the neighbourhood smoke their nightly 
pipes, and drink their nightly tipple. But in the States of 
America the first sign of an incipient settlement is an hotel 
five stories high, with an ofiice, a bar, a cloak-room, three gen- 
tlemen's parlours, two ladies' parlours, a ladies' entrance, and 
two hundred bedrooms. 

These, of course, are all built with a view to profit, and it 
may be presumed that in each case the originators of the spec- 
ulation enter into some calculation as to their expected guests. 
Whence are to come the sleepers in those two hundred bed- 
rooms, and who is to pay for the gaudy sofas and numerous 
lounging chairs of the ladies' parlours ? In all other countries 
the expectation would extend itself simply to travellers ; — to 
travellers or to strangers sojourning in the land. But this is 
by no means the case as to these speculations in America. 
When the new hotel rises up in the wilderness, it is presumed 
that people will come there with the express object of inhabit- 
ing it. The hotel itself will create a population, — as the rail- 
w-ays do. With us railways run to the towns ; but in the 
States the towns run to the railways. It is the same thing 
with the hotels. 

Housekeeping is not popular with young married people in 
America, and there are various reasons why this should be so. ^ 
Men there are not fixed in their employment as they are with ' 
us. If a young Benedict cannot get along as a lawyer at Sa- 
lem, perhaps he may thrive as a shoemaker at Thermopylae. 
Jefferson B. Johnson fails m the lumber line at Eleutheria, but 
hearing of an opening for a Baptist preacher at Big Mud Creek 
moves himself oft' with his wife and three children at a week's 
notice. Aminadab Wiggs takes an engagement as a clerk at 
a steam-boat ofiice on the Pongowonga river, but he goes to 
his employment with an inward conviction that six months will 
see him earning his bread elsewhere. Under such circumstan- 
ces even a large wardrobe is a nuisance, and a collection of furni- 
ture would be as appropriate as a drove of elephants. Then, 
again, young men and women marry without any means already 
collected on which to commence their life. They are content to 
look forward and to hope that such means will come. In so 



AMEEIGAN HOTELS. 557 

doing they are guilty of no imprudence. It is the way of the 
country ; and, if the man be useful for anything, employment 
will certainly come to him. But he must live on the fruits of 
that employment, and can only pay his w^ay from week to 
week and from day to day. And as a third reason I think I 
may allege that the mode of life found in these hotels is liked 
by the people who frequent them. It is to their taste. They 
are happy, or at any rate contented at these hotels, and do not 
wish for household cares. As to the two first reasons which I 
have given I can agree as to the necessity of the case, and quite 
concur as to the expediency of marriage under such circum- 
stances. But as to that matter of taste, I cannot concur at all. 
Anything more forlorn than a young married woman at an 
American hotel, it is impossible to conceive. 

Such are the guests expected for those two hundred bed- 
rooms. The chance travellers are but chance additions to 
these, and are not generally the main stay of the house. As a 
matter of course the accommodation for travellers which these 
hotels afford increases and creates travelling. Men come be- 
cause they know they will be fed and bedded at a moderate 
cost, and in an easy way, suited to their tastes. With us, and 
throughout Europe, inquiry is made before an unaccustomed 
journey is commenced, on that serious question of wayside 
food and shelter. But in the States no such question is need- 
ed. A big hotel is a matter of course, and therefore men travel. 
Everybody travels in the States. The railways and the hotels 
have between them so churned up the people that an untrav- 
elled man or woman is a rare animal. We are apt to suppose 
that travellers make roads, and that guests create hotels ; but 
the cause and effect run exactly in the other way. I am almost 
disposed to think that we should become cannibals if gentle- 
men's legs and ladies' arms were hung up for sale in purvey- 
ors' shops. 

After this fashion and with these intentions hotels are built. 
Size and an imposing exterior are the first requisitions. Every- 
thing about them must be on a large scale. A commanding 
exterior, and a certain interior dignity of demeanour is more 
essential than comfort or civility. Whatever an hotel may 
be it must not be " mean." In the American vernacular the 
word " mean" is very significant. A mean white in the South 
is a man who owns no slaves. Men are often mean, but ac- 
tions are seldom so called. A man feels mean when the blus- 
ter is taken out of him. A mean hotel, conducted in a quiet 
unostentatious manner, in which the only endeavour made had 



658 NORTH AMERICA. 

reference to the comfort of a few guests, would find no favour 
in the States. These hotels are not called by the name of any 
sign, as with us in our provinces. There are no " Presidents' 
Heads" or " Geno-ral Scotts." Nor by the name of the land- 
lord, or of some former landlord, as with us in London, and in 
many cities of the Continent. Nor are they called from some 
country or city which may have been presumed at some time 
to have had special patronage for the establishment. In the 
nomenclature of American hotels the speciality of American 
hero-worship is shown, as in the nomenclature of their children. 
Every inn is a house, and these houses are generally named af- 
ter some hero, little known probably in the world at large, but 
highly estimated in that locality at the moment of the chris- 
tening. 

They are always built on a plan which to a European seems 
to be most unnecessarily extravagant in space. It is not unfre- 
quently the case that the greater portion of the ground-floor is 
occupied by rooms and halls which make no return to the house 
whatever. The visitor enters a great hall by the front door, 
and almost invariably finds it full of men who are idling about, 
sitting round on stationary seats, talking in a listless manner, 
and getting through their time as though the place were a pub- 
lic lounging room. And so it is. The chances are that not 
half the crowd are guests at the hotel. I will now follow the 
visitor as he makes his way up to the ofiice. Every hotel has 
an ofiice. To call this place the bar, as I have done too fre- 
quently, is a lamentable error. The bar is held in a separate 
room appropriated solely to drinking. To the ofiice, which ia 
in fact a long open counter, the guest walks up, and there in- 
scribes his name in a book. This mscription was to me a mo- 
ment of misery which I could never go through with equanim- 
ity. As the name is written, and as the request for accommo- 
dation is made, half a dozen loungers look over your name and 
listen to what you say. They listen attentively, and spell your 
name carefully, but the great man behind the bar does not seem 
to listen or to heed you. Your destiny is never imparted to 
you on the instant. If your wife or any other woman be with 
you, (the word "lady" is made so absolutely distasteful in 
American hotels that I cannot bring myself to use it in writing 
of them,) she has been carried off to a lady's waiting room, 
and there remains in august wretchedness till the great man at 
the bar shall have decided on her fate. I have never been quite 
able to fathom the mystery of these delays. I think they must 
have originated in the necessity of waiting to see what might 



I 



AMEEICAN HOTELS. 659 

be the influx of travellers at the moment, and then have be- 
come exaggerated and brought to their present normal state 
by the gratified feeling of almost divine power with which for 
the time it invests that despotic arbiter. I have found it al- 
ways the same, though arriving with no crowd, by a convey- 
ance of my own, when no other expectant guests were follow- 
ing me. The great man has listened to my request in silence, 
with an imperturbable face, and has usually continued his con- 
versation with some loafing friend, who at the time is probably 
scrutinizing my name in the book. I have often suflered in 
patience ; but patience is not specially the badge of my tribe, 
and I have sometimes spoken out rather freely. If I may pre- 
sume to give advice to my travelling countrymen how to act 
under such circumstances I should recommend to them free- 
dom of speech rather than patience. The great man when 
freely addressed generally opens his eyes, and selects the key 
of your room without further delay. I am inclined to think 
that the selection will not be made in any way to your detri- 
ment by reason of that freedom of speech. The lady in the 
ballad who spoke out her own mind to Lord Bateman was sent 
to her home honourably in a coach and three. Had she held 
her tongue we are justified in presuming that she would have 
been returned on a piUion behind a servant. 

I have been greatly annoyed by that silence on the part of 
the hotel clerk. I have repeatedly asked for roo^ji) and received 
no syllable in return. I have persisted m my request, and the 
clerk Iras nodded his head at me. Until a traveller is known, 
these gentlemen are singularly sparing of speech, — especially 
in the West. The same, economy of words runs down from 
the great man at the office all through the servants of the es- 
tablishment. It arises, I believe, entirely from that want of 
courtesy which democratic institutions create. The man whom 
you address, has to make a battle against the state of subserv- 
ience, presumed to be indicated by his position, and he does so 
by declaring his indiiference to the person on whose wants he 
is paid to attend. I have been honoured on one or two occa- 
sions by the subsequent intimacy of these great men at the ho- 
tel offices, and have then found them ready enough at conver- 
sation. 

That necessity of making your request for rooms before a 
public audience, is not in itself agreeable, and sometimes entails 
a conversation which might be more comfortably made in pri- 
vate. " What do you mean by a dressing-room, and why do 
you want one ?" JSTow that is a question which an English- 



560 NORTH AMERICA. 

man feels awkward at answering before five-and-twenty Amer- 
icans, with open mouths and eager eyes ; but it has to be an- 
swered. When I left England, I was assured that I should not 
find any need for a separate sitting-room, seeing that drawing- 
rooms more or less sumptuous were prepared for the accom- 
modation of " ladies." At first we attempted to follow the ad- 
vice given to us, but we broke down. A man and his wife 
travelling from town to town, and making no sojourn on his 
way, may eat and sleep at an hotel without a private parlour. 
But an English woman cannot live in comfort for a week, or 
even, in comfort, for a day, at any of these houses, without a sit- 
ting-room for herself The ladies' drawing-room is a desolate 
wilderness. The American women themselves do not use it. 
It is generally empty, or occupied by some forlorn spinster, elic- 
iting harsh sounds from the wretched piano which it contains. 
The price at these hotels throughout the Union is nearly al- 
ways the same, viz., two and a half dollars a day, for which a 
bedroom is given, and as many meals as the guest can contrive 
to eat. This is the price for chance guests. The cost to monthly 
boarders is, I believe, not more than the half of this. Ten shil- 
lings a day, therefore, covers everything that is absolutely nec- 
essary, servants included. And this mu«t be said in praise of 
these inns : that the traveller can compute his expenses accu- 
rately, and can absolutely bring them within that daily sura of 
ten shillings. .This includes a great deal of eating, a great deal 
of attendance, the use of reading-rooms and smoking-rooms — 
which, however, always seem to be open to the public as well 
as to the guests, — and a bedroom witli accommodation which 
is at any rate as good as the average accommodation of hotels 
in Europe. In the large Eastern towns baths are attached to 
many of the rooms. I always carry my own, and have never 
failed in getting water. It must i3e acknowledged that the 
price is very low. It is so low that I believe it affords, as a 
rule, no profit whatsoever. The profit is made upon extra 
charges, and they are higher than in any other country that I 
have visited. They are so high that I consider travelling in 
America, for an Englishman with his wife or family, to be more 
expensive than travelling in any part of Europe. First in the 
list of extras comes that matter of the sitting-room, and by that 
for a man and his wife the whole first expense is at once doub- 
led. The ordinary charge is five dolkrs, or one pound a day ! 
A guest intending to stay for two or three weeks at an hotel, or 
perhaps for one week, may, by agreement, have this charge re- 
duced. 2\t one inn I stayed a fortnight, and having made no 



AMERICAN HOTELS. 561 

such agreement was charged the full sum. I felt myself stirred 
up to complain, and did in that case remonstrate. I was asked 
how much I wished to have returned, — for the bill had been 
paid, — and the sum I suggested was at once handed to me. 
But even with such reduction the price is very high, and at 
once makes the American hotel expensive. Wine also at these 
houses is very costly, and very bad. The usual price is two 
dollars, or eight shillings, a bottle. The people of the country 
rarely drink wine at dinner in the hotels. When they do so, 
they drink champagne ; but their normal drinking is done sep- 
arately, at the bar, chiefly before dinner, and at a cheap rate. 
" A drink," let it be what it may, invariably costs a dime, or 
fivepence. But if you must have a glass of sherry with your 
dinner, it costs two dollars ; for sherry does not grow into pint 
bottles in the States. But the guest who remains for two days 
can have his wine kept for him. Washing also is an expensive 
luxury. The price of this is invariable, being always fourpence 
for everything washed. A cambric handkerchief or muslin 
dress all come out at the same price. For those who are cun- 
ning in the matter this may do very well; but for men and 
women whose cufis and collars are numerous it becomes ex- 
pensive. The craft of those who are cunning is shown, I think, 
in little internal washings, by which the cambric handkerchiefs 
are kept out of the list, while the muslin dresses are placed upon 
it. I am led to this surmise by the energetic measures taken 
by the hotel keepers to prevent such domestic washings, and 
by the denunciations which in every hotel are pasted up in every 
room against the practice. I could not at first understand why 
I was always warned against washing my own clothes in my 
own bedroom, and told that no foreign laundress could on any 
account be admitted into the house. The injunctions given on 
this head are almost frantic in their energy, and therefore I 
conceive that hotel keepers find themselves exposed to much 
suffering in the matter. At these hotels they wash with great 
rapidity, sending you back your clothes in four or five hours if 
you desire it. 

Another very stringent order is placed before the face of all 
visitors at American hotels, desiring them on no account to 
leave valuable property in their rooms. I presume that there 
must have been some difficulty in this matter in bygone years, 
for in every State a law has been passed declaring that hotel 
keepers shall not be held responsible for money or jewels stolen 
out of rooms in their houses, provided that they are furnished 
with safes for keeping such money, and give due caution to 

Aa2 



562 NORTH AMERICA. 

their guests on the subject. The due caution is always given, 
but I have seldom myself taken any notice of it. I have always 
'left my portmanteau open, and have kept my money usually in 
a travelling desk in my room. But I never to my knowledge 
lost anything. The world, I think, gives itself credit for more 
thieves than it possesses. As to the female servants at Amer- 
ican inns, they are generally all that is disagreeable. They are 
uncivil, impudent, dirty, slow, — provoking to a degree. But 
I believe that they keep their hands from picking and stealing. 

I never yet made a single comfortable meal at an American 
hotel, or rose from my breakfast or dinner with that feeling of 
satisfaction which should, I think, be felt at such moments in 
a civilized land in which cookery prevails as an art. I have 
had enough, and have been healthy, and am thankful. But 
that thankfulness is altogether a matter apart, and does not 
bear upon the question. If need be I can eat food that is dis- 
agreeable to my palate, and make no complaint. But I hold 
it to be compatible with the principles of an advanced Chris- 
tianity to prefer food that is palatable. I never could get any 
of that kind at an American hotel. All meal-times at such 
houses were to me periods of disagreeable duty ; and at this 
moment, as I write these lines at the hotel in which I am still 
staying, I pine foi* an English leg of mutton. But I do not 
wish it to be suj^posed that the fault of which I complain, — for 
it is a grievous fault, — is incidental to America as a nation. I 
have stayed in private houses, and have daily sat down to din- 
ners quite as good as any my own kitchen could afford me. 
Their dinner parties are generally well done, and as a people 
they are by no means indifferent to the nature of their comes- 
tibles. It is of the hotels that I speak, and of them I again 
say that eating in them is a disagreeable task, — a painful la- 
bour. It is as a schoolboy's lesson, or the six hours' confine- 
ment of a clerk at his desk. 

The mode of eating is as follows. Certain feeding hours are 
named, which generally include nearly all the day. Breakfast 
from six till ten. Dinner from one till five. Tea from six till 
nine. Supper from nine till twelve. When the guest presents 
himself at any of these hours he is marshalled to a seat, and a 
bill is put into his hand containing the names of all the eatables 
then offered for his choice. The list is incredibly and most un- , 
necessarily long. Then it is that you Avill see care written on 
the face of the American hotel liver, as he studies the pro- 
gramme of the coming performance. With men this passes 
off unnoticed, but with young girls the appearance of the thing 



AMEEICAN HOTELS. 563 

is not attractive. The anxious study, the elaborate reading 
of the daily book, and then the choice proclaimed with clear 
articulation. "Boiled mutton and caper sauce, roast duck, 
hashed venison, mashed potatoes, poached eggs and spinach, 
stewed tomatoes. Yes; and waiter, — some squash." There 
is no false delicacy in the voice by which this order is given, 
no desire for a gentle whisper. The dinner is ordered with 
the firm determination of an American heroine, and in some 
five minutes' time all the little dishes appear at once, and the 
lady is surrounded by her banquet. 

How I did learn to hate those little dishes and tbeir greasy 
contents ! At a London eating-house things are often not very 
nice, but your meat is put on a plate and comes before you in 
an edible shape. At these hotels it is brought to you in hor- 
rid little oval dishes, and swims in grease. Gravy is not an 
institution at American hotels, but grease has taken its place. 
It is palpable, undisguised grease, floating in rivers, — not grease 
caused by accidental bad cookery, but grease on purpose. A 
beef-steak is not a beef-steak unless a quarter of a pound of 
butter be added to it. Those horrid little dishes! If one 
thinks of it how could they have been made to coritain Chris- 
tian food ? Every article in that long list is liable to the call 
of any number of guests for four hours. Under such circum- 
stances how can food be made eatable ? Your roast mutton 
is brought to you raw; — if you object to that you are supplied 
with meat that has been four times brought before the public. 
At hotels on the continent of Europe difierent dinners are 
cooked at different hours, but here the same dinner is kept al- 
ways going. The house breakfast is maintained on a similar 
footing. Huge boilers of tea and coffee are stewed down and 
kept hot. To me those meals were odious. It is of course 
open to any one to have separate dinners and separate break- 
fasts in his own room ; but by this little is gained and much 
is lost. He or she who is so exclusive pays twice over for 
such meals, — as they are charged as extras on the bill ; and, 
after all, receives the advantage of no exclusive cooking. Par- 
ticles from the public dinners are brought to the private room, 
and the same odious little dishes make their appearance. 

But the most striking peculiarity of the American hotels is 
in their public rooms. Of the ladies' drawing-room I have 
spoken. There are two and sometimes three in one hotel, and 
they are generally furnished, at any rate expensively. It seems 
to me that the space and the furniture are almost thrown away. 
At watering places, and sea-side summer hotels they are, I 



564 NORTH AMEEICA. 

presume, used ; but at ordinary hotels they are empty deserts. 
The intention is good, for they are estabUshed with the view 
of giving to ladies at hotels the comforts of ordinary domestic 
life ; but they fail in their effect. Ladies will not make them- 
selves happy in any room, or with ever so much gilded furni- 
ture, unless some means of happiness be provided for them. 
Into these rooms no book is ever brought, no needle-work is 
introduced; from them no clatter of many tongues is ever 
heard. On a marble table in the middle of the room always 
stands a large pitcher of iced water, and from this a cold, damp, 
uninviting air is spread through the atmosphere of the ladies' 
drawing-room. 

Below, on the ground floor, there is, in the first place, the 
huge entrance hall, at the back of which, behind a bar, the 
great man of the place keeps the keys and holds his court. 
There are generally seats around it, in which smokers sit, — or 
men not smoking but ruminating. Opening off from this are 
reading rooms, smoking rooms, shaving rooms, drinking rooms, 
parlours for gentlemen in which smoking is prohibited, and 
which are generally as desolate as the ladies' sitting-rooms 
above. In those other more congenial chambers is always 
gathered together a crowd, apparently belonging in no way to 
the hotel. It would seem that a great portion of an American 
inn is as open to the public as an Exchange, or as the wayside 
of the street. In the West, during the months of this war, 
the traveller would always see many soldiers among the crowd, 
— not only ofiicers, but privates. They sit in public seats, si- 
lent but apparently contented, sometimes for an hour together. 
All Americans are given to gatherings such as these. It is 
the much-loved institutioji to which the name of " loafing" has 
been given. 

I do not like the mode of life which prevails in the Ameri- 
can hotels. I have come across exceptions, and know one or 
two that are comfortable, — always excepting that matter of 
eating and drinking. But taking them as a w^hole I do not 
like their mode of Hfe. I feel, however, bound to add that the 
hotels of Canada, which are kept, I think, always after the 
same fashion, are infinitely worse than those of the United 
States. I do not like the American hotels ; but I must say in 
their favour that they afford an immense amount of accommo- 
dation. The traveller is rarely told that an hotel is full, so 
that travelling in America is without one of those great perils 
to w^hich it is subject in Europe. It must also be acknowl- 
edged that for the ordinary purposes of a traveller they are 
very cheap. 



LITERATUKE. 565 

CHAPTER XXXV. » 

LITERATURE. 

In speaking of the literature of any country we are, I think, too 
much inclined to regard the question as one appertaining exclu- 
sively to the writers of books, — not acknowledging, as we should 
do, that the literary character of a people will depend much more 
upon what it reads than what it writes. If we can suppose any 
people to have an intimate acquaintance with the best literary ef- 
forts of other countries, we should hardly be correct in saying that 
such a people had no literary history of their own because it had 
itself produced nothing in literature. And, with reference to those 
countries which have been most fertile in the production of good 
books, I doubt whether their literary histories would not have 
more to tell of those ages in which much has been read than of 
those in which much has been written. 

The United States have been by no means barren in the produc- 
tion of literature. The truth is so far from this that their literary 
triumphs are perhaps those which of all their triumphs are the 
most honourable to them, and which, considering their position 
as a young nation, are the most permanently satisfactory. But 
though they have done much in writing, they have done much 
more in reading. As producers they are more than respectable, 
but as consumers they are the most conspicuous people on the 
earth. It is impossible to speak of the subject of literature in 
America without thinking of the readers rather than of the writ- 
ers. In this matter their position is different from that of any 
other great people, seeing that they share the advantages of our 
language. An American will perhaps consider himself to be as 
little like an Englishman as he is like a Frenchman. But he reads 
Shakespeare through the medium of his own vernacular, and has 
to undergo the penance of a foreign tongue before he can under- 
stand Moliere. He separates himself from England in politics 
and perhaps in affection ; but he cannot separate himself from En- 
gland in mental culture. It may be suggested that an English- 
man has the same advantages as regards America ; and it is true 
that he is obtaining much of such advantage. Irving, Prescott, 
and Longfellow are the same to England as though she herself had 
produced them. But the balance of advantage must be greatly in 
favour of America. We have given her the work of four hundred 
years, and have received back in return the work of fifty. 



566 NORTH AMERICA. 

And of this advantage the Americans have not been slow to 
avail themselves. As consumers of literature they are certainly 
the most conspicuous people on the earth. Where an English 
publisher contents himself with thousands of copies an American 
publisher deals with ten thousands. The sale of a new book, 
which in numbers would amount to a considerable success with 
us, would with them be a lamentable failure. This, of course, is 
accounted for, as regards the author and the publisher, by the dif- 
ference of price at which the book is produced. One thousand in 
Eno-land will give perhaps as good a return as the ten thousand in 
America. But as regards the readers there can be no such equal- 
ization. The thousand copies cannot spread themselves as do the 
teu thousand. The one book at a guinea cannot multiply itself, 
let Mr. Mudie do what he will, as do the ten books at a dollar. 
Ultimately there remain the ten books against the one ; and if 
there be not the ten readers against the one, there are five, or four, 
or three. Everybody in the States has books about his house. 
" And so has everybody in England," will say my English reader, 
mindful of the libraries, or book-rooms, or book-crowded drawing- 
rooms of his friends and acquaintances. But has my English 
reader who so replies examined the libraries of many English cab- 
men, of ticket porters, of warehousemen, and of agricultural la- 
bourers ? I cannot take upon myself to say that I have done so 
with any close search in the States. But when it has been in my 
power I have done so, and I have always found books in such 
houses as I have entered. The amount of printed matter which 
is poured forth in streams from the printing-presses of the great 
American publishers is, however, a better proof of the truth of 
what I say than anything that I can have seen myself. 

But of what class are the books that are so read ? There are 
many who think that reading in itself is not good unless the mat- 
ter read be excellent. I do not myself quite agree with this, think- 
ing that almost any reading is better than none ; but I will of 
course admit that good matter is better than bad matter. The 
bulk of the literature consumed in the States is no doubt composed 
of novels, — as it is also, now-a-days, in this country. AV^hether or 
no an unlimited supply of novels for young people is or is not ad- 
vantageous, I will not here pretend to say. The general opinion 
with ourselves I take it is, that novels are bad reading if they be 
bad of their kind. Novels that arc not bad are now-a-days ac- 
cepted generally as indispensable to our households. Whatever 
may be the weakness of the American literary taste in this re- 
spect, it is, I think, a weakness which we share. There are more 



LITERATURE. 567 

novel readers among them than with us, but only, I think, in the 
proportion that there are more readers. 

I have no hesitation in saying, that works by English authors 
are more popular in the States than those written by themselves ; 
and, among English authors of the present day, they by no means 
confine themselves to the novelists. The English names of whom 
I heard most during my sojourn in the States, were perhaps those 
of Dickens, Tennyson, Buckle, Tom Hughes, Martin Tupper, and 
Thackeray. As the owners of all these names are still living, I 
am not going to take upon myself the delicate task of criticising 
the American taste. I may not perhaps coincide with them in 
every respect. But if I be right as to the names which I have 
given, such a selection shows that they do get beyond novels. # 
have little doubt but that many more copies of Dickens's novels 
have been sold during the last three years, than of the works ei- 
ther of Tennyson or of Buckle ; but such also has been the case 
in England. It will probably be admitted that one copy of the 
''Civilization" should be held as being equal to five-and-twenty 
of *' Nicholas Nickleby," and that a single "In Memoriam" may 
fairly weigh down half-a-do^en *' Pickwicks." Men and women 
after their day's work are not always up to the " Civilization." 
As a rule they are generally up to " Proverbial Philosophy," and 
this, perhaps, may have had something to do with the great popu- 
larity of that very popular work. 

I would not have it supposed that American readers despise 
their own authors. The Americans are very proud of having a 
literature of their own. Among the literary names which they 
honour, there are none, I think, more honourable than those of 
Cooper and Irving. They like to know that their modern histo- 
rians are acknowledged as great authors, and as regards their own 
poets will sometimes demand your admiration for strains with 
which you hardly find yourself to be familiar. But English books 
are, I think, the better loved ; — even the English books of the 
present day. And even beyond this, — with those who choose to 
indulge in the costly luxuries of literature, — books printed in En- 
gland are more popular than those which are printed in their own 
country ; and yet the manner in which the American publishers 
put out their work is very good. The book sold there at a dollar, 
or a dollar and a quarter, quite equals our ordinary five shilling 
volume. Nevertheless English books are preferred, — almost as 
strongly as are French bonnets. Of books absolutely printed and 
produced in England the supply in the States is of course small. 
They must necessarily be costly, and as regards new books, are 



568 NORTH AMERICA. 

always subjected to the rivalry of a cheaper American copy. But 
of the reprinted works of English authors the supply is unlimited, 
and the sale very great. Almost everything is reprinted ; cer- 
tainly everything which can be said to attain any home popular- 
ity. I do not know how far English authors may be aware of the 
fact ; but it is undoubtedly a fact that their influence as authors, 
is greater on the other side of the Atlantic than on this. It is 
there that they have their most numerous school of pupils. It is 
there that they are recognized as teachers by hundreds of thou- 
sands. It is of those thirty millions that they should think, at any 
rate in part, when they discuss within their own hearts that ques- 
tion which all authors do discuss, whether that which they -write 
likill in itself be good or bad, — be true or false. A writer in En- 
gland may not, perhaps, think very much of this wdth reference to 
some trifle of which his English publisher proposes to sell some 
seven or eight hundred copies. But he begins to feel that he should 
have thought of it when ha learns that twenty or thirty thousand 
copies of the same have been scattered through the length and 
breadth of the United States. The English author should feel 
that he writes for the widest circle of readers ever yet obtained 
by the literature of any country. He provides not only for his 
own country and for the States, but for the readers who are rising 
by millions in the British colonies. Canada is supplied chiefly 
from the presses of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, but she 
is supplied with the works of the mother country. India, as I take 
it, gets all her books direct from London, as do the West Indies. 
Whether or no the Australian colonies have as yet learned to re- 
print our books I do not know, but I presume that they cannot do 
so as cheaply as they can import them. London with us, and the 
three cities which I have named on the other side of the Atlantic, 
are the places at which this literature is manufactured ; but the 
demand in the western hemisphere is becoming more brisk than 
that which the old world creates. There is, I have no doubt, 
more literary matter printed in London than in all America put 
together. A greater extent of letter-press is put up in London 
than in the three publishing cities of the States. But the num- 
ber of copies issued by the American publishers is so much great- 
er than those which ours put forth, that the greater bulk of litera- 
ture is with them. If this be so, the demand with them is of 
course greater than it is with us. 

I have spoken here of the privilege which an English author en- 
joys by reason of the ever widening circle of readers to whom he 
writes. I speak of the privilege of an English author as distin- 



LITER ATUEE. 569 

guished from that of an American author. I profess my belief 
that in the United States an English author has an advantao-e 
over one of that country merely in the fact of his being English, 
as a French milliner has undoubtedly an advantage in her nation- 
ality let her merits or demerits as a milliner be what they may. I 
think that English books are better liked because they are En- 
glish. But I do not know that there is any feeling with us either 
for or against an author because he is American. I believe that 
Longfellow stands in our judgment exactly where he would have 
stood had he been a tutor at a college in Oxford instead of a Pro- 
fessor at Cambridge in Massachusetts. Prescott is read among us 
as an historian without any reference as to his nationality, and by 
many, as I take it, in absolute ignorance of his nationality. Haw- 
thorne, the novelist, is quite as well known in England as he is in 
his own country. But I do not know that to either of these three 
is awarded any favour or is denied any justice because he is an 
American. Washington Irving published many of his works in 
this country, receiving very large sums for them from Mr. Mur- 
ray, and I fancy that in dealing with his publisher lie found nei- 
ther advantage nor disadvantage in his nationality; — that is, of 
course, advantage or disadvantage in reference to the light in 
which his works would be regarded. It must be admitted that 
there is no jealousy in the States against English authors. I think 
that there is a feeling in their favour, but no one can at any rate 
allege that there is a feeling against them. I think I may also as- 
sert on the part of my own country that there is no jealousy here 
against American authors. As regards the tastes of the people, 
the works of each country flow freely through the other. That is 
as it should be. But when we come to the mode of supply, things 
are not exactly as they should be ; and I do not believe that any 
one will contradict me when I say that the fault is with the Amer- 
icans. 

I presume that all my readers know the meaning of the word 
copyright. A man's copyright, or right in his copy, is that amount 
of legal possession in the production of his brains which has been 
seicured to him by the laws of his own country and by the laws of 
others. Unless an author were secured by such laws, his writings 
would be of but little pecuniary value to him, as the right of print- 
ing and selling them would be open to all the world. In England 
and in America, and as I conceive in all countries possessing a lit- 
erature, there is such a law securing to authors and to their heirs 
for a term of years the exclusive right over their own productions. 
That tliis should be so in England as regards English authors is 



570 NORTH A3IKRICA. 

SO much a matter of course, that the copyright of an author would 
seem to be as naturally his own as a gentleman's deposit at his 
bank or his little investment in the three per cents. The right of 
an author to the value of his own productions in other countries 
than his own is not so much a matter of course ; but nevertheless, 
if such productions have any value in other countries, that value 
should belong to him. This has been felt to be the case between 
England and France, and treaties have been made securing his own 
property to the author in each country. The fact that the lan- 
guages of England and France are different makes the matter one 
of comparatively small moment. But it has been found to be for 
the honour and profit of the two countries, that there should be 
such a law, and an international copyright does exist. But if such 
an arrangement be needed between two such countries as France 
and England, — between two countries which do not speak the 
same language or share the same literature, — how much more nec- 
essary must it be between England and the United States ? The 
literature of the one country is the literature of the other. The 
poem that is popular in London will certainly be popular in New 
York. The novel that is effective among American ladies will be 
equally so with those of England. There can be no doubt as to 
the importance of having a law of copyright between the two 
countries. The only question can be as to the expediency and the 
justice. At present there is no international copyright between 
England and the United States, and there is none because the 
States have declined to sanction any such law. It is known by 
all who are concerned in the matter on either side of the water 
that as far as Great Britain is concerned such a law would meet 
with no impediment. 

Therefore it is to be presumed that the legislators of the States 
think it expedient and just to dispense with any such law. I have 
said that there can be no doubt as to the importance of the ques- 
tion, seeing that the price of English literature in the States must 
be most materially affected by it. Without such a law the Amer- 
icans are enabled to import English literature without paying for 
it. It is open to any American publisher to reprint any work 
from an English copy, and to sell his reprints without any permis- 
sion obtained from the English author or from the English pub- 
lisher. The absolute material which the American publisher sells, 
he takes, or can take, for nothing. The paper, ink, and composi- 
tion he supplies in the ordinary -way of business ; but of the very 
matter which he professes to sell, — of the book which is the object 
of his trade, he is enabled to possess himself for nothing. If you, 



LITERATURE. 571 

my reader, be a popular author, an American publisher will take 
the choicest work of your brain and make dollars out of it, selling 
thousands of copies of it in his country, whereas you can, perhaps, 
only sell hundreds of it in your own ; and will either give you 
nothing for that he takes, — or else will explain to you that he 
need give you nothing, and that in paying you anything he sub- 
jects himself to the danger of seeing the property which he has 
bought taken again from him by other persons. If this be so that 
question whether or no there shall be a law of international copy- 
right between the two countries cannot be unimportant. 

But it may be inexpedient that there shall be such a law. It 
may be considered well, that as the influx of English books into 
America is much greater than the out-flux of American books 
back to England, the right of obtaining such books for nothing 
should be reserved, although the country in doing so robs its own 
authors of the advantage which should accrue to them from the 
English market. It might perhaps be thought anything but smart 
to surrender such an advantage by the passing of an international 
copyright bill. There are not many trades in which the trades- 
man can get the chief of his goods for nothing ; and it may be 
thought, that the advantage arising to the States from such an ar- 
rangement of circumstances should not be abandoned. But how 
then about the justice? It would seem that the less said upon 
that subject the better. I have heard no one say that an author's 
property in his own works should not, in accordance with justice, 
be insured to him in the one country as well as in the other. I 
have seen no defence of the present position of affairs, on the score 
of justice. ' The price of books would be enhanced by an interna- 
tional copyright law, and it is well that books should be cheap. 
That is the only argument used. So would mutton be cheap, if it 
could be taken out of a butcher's shop for nothing ! 

But I absolutely deny the expediency of the present position of 
the matter, looking simply to the material advantage of the Amer- 
ican people in the matter, and throwing aside altogether that ques- 
tion of justice. I must here, however, explain that I bring no 
charge whatsoever against the American publishers. The English 
author is a victim in their hands, but it is by no means their fault 
that he is so. As a rule, they are willing to pay for the works of 
popular English writers, but in arranging as to what payments 
they can make, they must of course bear in mind the fact that 
they have no exclusive right whatsoever in the things which they 
purchase. It is natural, also, that they should bear in mind when 
making their purchases, and arranging their prices, that they can 



572 NORTH AMERICA, 

have the very thing they are buying without any payment at all, 
if the price asked do not suit them. It is not of the publishers 
that I complain, or of any advantage which they take ; but of the 
legislators of the country, and of the advantage which accrues, or 
is thought by them to accrue to the American people from the ab- 
sence of an international copyright law. It is mean on their part 
to take such advantage if it existed ; and it is foolish in them to 
suppose that any such advantage can accrue. The absence of any 
law of copyright no doubt gives to the American publisher the 
power of reprinting the works of English authors without paying 
for them, — seeing that the English author is undefended. But the 
American publisher who brings out such a reprint is equally un- 
defended in h.is property. When he shall have produced his book, 
his rival in the next street may immediately reprint it from him, 
and destroy the value of his property by underselling him. It is 
probable that the first American publisher will have made some 
payment to the English author for the privilege of publishing the 
book honestly, — of publishing it without recurrence to piracy, — 
and in arranging his price with his customers he will be, of course, 
obliged to debit the book with the amount so paid. If the author 
receive ten cents a copy on every copy sold, the publisher must add 
that ten cents to the price he charges for it. But he cannot do 
this with security, because the book can be immediately reprinted, 
and sold without any such addition to the price. The only secur- 
ity which the American publisher has against the injury which 
may be so done to him, is the power of doing other injury in re- 
turn. The men who stand high in the trade, and who are power- 
ful because of the largeness of their dealings, can in a certain meas- 
ure secure themselves in thJ^ way. Such a firm would have the 
power of crushing a small tradesman who should interfere with 
him. But if the large firm commits any such act of injustice, the 
little men in the trade have no power of setting themselves right 
by counter injustice. I need hardly point out what must be the 
effect of such a state of things upon the whole publishing trade ; 
nor need I say more to prove that some law which shall regulate 
property in foreign copyrights would be as expedient with refer- 
ence to America, as it would be just towards England. But the 
wrong done by America to herself does not rest here. It is true 
that more English books are read in the States than American 
books in England, but it is equally true that the literature of 
America is daily gaining readers among us. That injury to which 
Englisli authors are subjected from the want of protection in the 
States, American authors suffer from the want of protection hei'e. 



LITERATURE. 573 

One can hardly believe that the legislators of the States would 
willingly place the brightest of their own fellow countrymen in 
this position, because in the event of a copyright bill being passed, 
the balance of advantage would seem to accrue to England ! 

Of the literature of the United States, speaking of literature in 
its ordinary sense, I do not know that I need say much more. I 
regard the literature of a country as its highest produce, believing 
it to be more powerful in its general effect, and more beneficial in 
its results, than either statesmanship, professional ability, religious 
teaching, or commerce. And in no part of its national career have 
the United States been so successful as in this. I need hardly ex- 
plain that I should commit a monstrous injustice were I to make 
a comparison in this matter between England and America. Lit- 
erature is the child of leisure and wealth. It is the produce of 
minds which by a happy combination of circumstances have been 
enabled to dispense with the ordinary cares of the world. It can 
hardly be expected to come from a young country, or from a new 
and still struggling people. Looking around at our own magnifi- 
cent colonies I hardly remember a considerable name which they 
have produced, except that of my excellent old friend, Sam Slick. 
Nothing, therefore, I think, shows the settled greatness of the peo- 
ple of the States more significantly than their firm establishment 
of a national literature. This literature runs over all subjects. 
American authors have excelled in poetry, in science, in history, 
in metaphysics, in law, in theology, and in fiction. They have at- 
tempted all, and failed in none. What Englishman has devoted a 
room to books, and devoted no portion of that room to the pro- 
ductions of America? 

But I must say a word of literature in which I shall not speak 
of it in its ordinary sense, and shall yet speak of it in that sense 
which of all perhaps, in the present day, should be considered the 
most ordinary. I mean the every-day periodical literature of the 
press. Most of those who can read, it is to be hoped, read books ; 
but all who can read do read newspapers. Newspapers in this 
country are so general that men cannot well live without them ; 
but to men, and to women also, in the United States they may be 
said to be the one chief necessary of life. And yet in the whole 
length and breadth of the United States there is not published a 
single newspaper which seems to me to be worthy of praise. 

A really good newspaper, — one excellent at all points, — would 
indeed be a triumph of honesty and of art ! Not only is such a 
publication much to be desired in America, but it is still to be de- 
sired in Great Britain also. I used, in my younger days, to think 



574 NO^TH AMERICA. 

of such a newspaper as a possible publication, and in a certain de- 
gree I then looked for it. Now I expect it only in my dreams. 
It should be powerful without tyranny, popular without triumph, 
political without party passion, critical without personal feeling, 
right in its statements and just in its judgments, but right and just 
without pride. It should be all but omniscient, but not conscious 
of its omniscience ; it should be moral, but not strait-laced ; it 
should be well-assured, but yet modest ; though never humble, it 
should be free from boasting. Above all these things it should be 
readable ; and above that again it should be true. I used to think 
that such a newspaper might be produced, but I now sadly ac- 
knowledge to myself the fact that humanity is not capable of any 
work so divine. 

The newspapers of the States generally may not only be said to 
have reached none of the virtues here named, but to have fallen 
into all the opposite vices. In the first place they are never true. 
In requiring truth from a newspaper the public should not be anx- 
ious to strain at gnats. A statement setting forth that a certain 
gooseberry was five inches in circumference, whereas in truth its 
girtli was only two and a half, would give me no oiFence. Nor 
would I be offended at being told that Lord Derby was appointed 
to the premiership, while in truth the Queen had only sent for his 
lordship, having as yet come to no definite arrangement. The de- 
mand for truth which may reasonably be made upon a newspaper 
amounts to this, — that nothing should be stated not believed to 
be true, and that nothing should be stated as to which the truth is 
important, without adequate ground for such belief. If a newspa- 
per accuse me of swindling, it is not sufficient that the writer be- 
lieve me to be a swindler. He should have ample and sufficient 
ground for such belief; — otherwise in making such a statement he 
will write falsely. In our private life we all recognize the fact 
that this is so. It is understood that a man is not a whit the less 
a slanderer because he believes the slander which he promulgates. 
But it seems to me that this is not sufficiently recognized by many 
who write for the public press. Evil things are said, and are prob- 
ably believed by the writers ; they are said with that special skill 
for which newspaper writers have in our days become so conspicu- 
ous, defying alike redress by law or redress by argument ; but they 
are too often said falsely. The words are not measured when they 
are written, and they are allowed to go forth without any sufficient 
inquiry into their truth. But if there be any ground for such 
complaint here in England, that ground is multiplied ten times — 
twenty times — in the States. This is not only shown in the abuse 



LITERATURE. 5V5 

of individuals, in abuse which is as violent as it is perpetual, but 
in the treatment of eveiy subject which is handled. All idea of 
truth has been thrown overboard. It seems to be admitted that 
the only object is to produce a sensation, and that it is admitted 
by both writer and reader that sensation and veracity are incom- 
patible. Falsehood has become so much a matter of course with 
American newspapers that it has almost ceased to be falsehood. 
Nobody thinks me a liar because I deny that I am at home when 
I am in my study. The nature of the arrangement is generally 
understood. So also is it with the American newspapers. 

But American newspapers are also unreadable. It is very bad 
that they should be false, but it is very surprising that they should 
be dull. Looking at the general intelligence of the people, one 
would have thought that a readable newspaper, put out with all 
pleasant appurtenances of clear type, good paper, and good intern- 
al arrangement, would have been a thing specially within their 
reach. But they have failed in every detail. Though their pa- 
pers are always loaded with sensation headings, there are seldom 
sensation paragraphs to follow. The paragraphs do not fit the 
headings. Either they cannot be found, or if found they seem to 
have escaped from their proper column to some distant and remote 
portion of the sheet. One is led to presume that no American 
editor has any plan in the composition of his newspaper. I never 
know whether I have as yet got to the very heart's core of the 
daily journal, or whether I am still to go on searching for that 
heart's core. Alas, it too often happens that there is no heart's 
core ! The whole thing seems to have been put out at hap-hazard. 
And then the very Avriting is in itself below mediocrity; — as though 
a power of expression in properly arranged language was not re- 
quired by a newspaper editor, either as regards himself or as re- 
gards his subordinates. One is driven to suppose that the writers 
for the daily press are not chosen with any view to such capabili- 
ty. A man ambitious of being on the staff of an American news- 
paper should be capable of much work, should be satisfied with 
small pay, should be indifferent to the world's good usage, should 
be rough, ready, and of long sufferance ; but, above all, he should 
be smart. The type of almost all American newspapers is wretch- 
ed — I think I may say of all ; — so wretched that that alone for- 
bids one to hope for pleasure in reading them. They are ill-writ- 
ten, ill-printed, ill-arranged^ and in fact are not readable. They 
are bought, glanced at, and thrown away. 

They are full of boastings, — not boastings simply as to tkeir 
country, their town, or their party, — but of boastings as to them- 



576 NORTH AMERICA. 

selves. And yet they possess no self-assurance. It is always ev- 
ident that they neither trust themselves, or expect to be trusted. 
They have made no approach to that omniscience which consti- 
tutes the great marvel of our own daily press ; but finding it nec- 
essary to write as though they possessed it, they fall into blunders 
which are almost as marvellous. Justice and right judgment are 
out of the question with them. A political party end is always 
in view, and political party warfare in America admits of any 
weapons. No newspaper in America is really powerful or popu- 
lar; and yet they are tyrannical and overbearing. The "New 
York Herald" has, I beUeve, the largest sale of any daily news- 
paper ; but it is absolutely without political power, and in these 
times of war has truckled to the Government more basely than 
any other paper. It has an enormous sale, but so far is it from 
having achieved popularity, that no man on any side ever speaks 
a good word for it. All American newspapers deal in politics as 
a matter of course ; but their politics have ever regard to men 
and never to measures. Vituperation is their natural political 
weapon; but since the President's ministers have assumed the 
power of stopping newspapers which are offensive to them, they 
have shown that they can descend to a course of eulogy which is 
even below vituperation. 

I shall be accused of using very strong language against the 
newspaper press of America. I can only say that I do not know 
how to make that language too strong. Of course there are news- 
papers as to which the editors and writers may justly feel that my 
remarks, if applied to them, are unmerited. In writing on such a 
subject, I can only deal with the whole as a whole. During my 
stay in the country, I did my best to make myself acquainted with 
the natuie of its newspapers, knowing in how great a degree its 
population depends on them for its daily store of information. 
Newspapers in the States of America have a much wider, or rath- 
er closer circulation, than they do with us. Every man and al- 
most every woman sees a newspaper daily. They are very cheap, 
and are brought to every man's hand without trouble to himself, 
at every turn that he takes in his day's work. It would be much 
for the advantage of the country, that they should be good of their 
kind ; but, if I am able to form a correct judgment on the matter, 
they are not good. 



CONCLUSION. 577 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

CONCLUSION. 

In one of the previous chapters of this volume, — now some 
seven or eight chapters past, — I brought myself on my travels 
back to Boston. It was not that my way homewards lay by 
that route, seeing that my fate required me to sail from New 
York ; but I C£»uld not leave the country without revisiting my 
friends in Massachusetts. I have told how I was there in the 
sleighing tim^, and how pleasant were the mingled slush and 
frost of the snowy winter. In the morning the streets would 
be hard and crisp, and the stranger would surely fall if he were 
not prepared to walk on glaciers. In the afternoon he would 
be wading through rivers, — and if properly armed at all points 
with india-rubbei*, would enjoy the rivers as he waded. But 
the air would be always kindly, and the east Avind there, if it 
was east as I Avas told, had none of that power of dominion 
which makes us all so submissive to its behests in London- 
For myself, I believe that the real east wind blows only in 
London. 

And when the snow went in Boston I went with it. The 
evening before I left I watched them as they carted away the 
dirty uncouth blocks which had been broken up with pickaxes 
in Washington Street, and was melancholy as I reflected that I 
too should no longer be known in the streets. My weeks in 
Boston had not been very many, but nevertheless there w^ere 
haunts there which I knew as though my feet had trodden 
them for years. There were houses to which I could have 
gone with my eyes blindfold ; doors of which the latches were 
famihar to my hands ; faces which I knew so well that they had 
ceased to put on for me the fictitious smiles of courtesy. Faces, 
houses, doors, and haunts, where are they now? For me they 
are as though they had never been. They are among the things 
which one would fain remember as one remembers a dream. 
Look back on it as a vision and it is all pleasant. But if you 
realize your vision and believe your dream to be a fact, all your 
pleasure is obliterated by regret. 

I know that I shall never again be at Boston, and that I have 
said that about the Americans which would make me unwel- 
come as a guest if I were there. It is in this that my regret 
consists ; — for this reason that I would wish to remember so 
many social hours as though they had been passed in sleep. 

B B 



5*78 NORTH AMERICA. 

They who will expect blessings from me, will say among them- 
selves that I have cursed them. As I read the pages which I 
have written I feel that words which I intended for blessings 
when I prepared to utter them have gone nigh to turn them- 
selves into curses. 

I have ever admired the United States as a nation. I have 
loved their liberty, their prowess, their intelligence, and their 
progress. I have sympathized with a people who themselves 
have had no sympathy with passive security and inaction. I 
have felt confidence in them, and have known, as it were, that 
their industry must enable them to succeed as a people, while 
their freedom would insure to them success as a nation. With 
these convictions I went among them wishing to write of them 
good words, — words which might be pleasant for them to read, 
while they might assist perhaps in producing a true impression 
of them here at home. But among my good words there are 
so many which are bitter, that I fear I shall have failed in my 
object as regards them. And it seems to me, as I read once 
more my own pages, that in saying evil things of my friends, I 
have used language stronger than I intended ; Avhereas I have 
omitted to express myself Avith emphasis when I have attempted 
to say good things. Why need I have told of the mud of Wash- 
ington, or have exposed the nakedness of Cairo ? Why did I 
speak with such eager enmity of those poor women in the New 
York cars, who never injured me, now that I think of it ? Ladies 
of New York, as I write this, the words which were written 
among you, are printed and cannot be expunged ; but I tender 
to you my apologies from my home in England. And as to 
that Van Wyck committee ! Might I not have left those con- 
tractors to be dealt with by their own Congress, seeing that that 
Congress committee was by no means inclined to spare them ? 
I might have kept my pages free from gall, and have sent my 
sheets to the press unhurt by the conviction that I was hurting 
those who had dealt kindly by me ! But what then? Was any 
people ever truly served by eulogy; or an honest cause furthered 
by undue praise ? 

O ray friends with thin skins, — and here I protest that a thick 
skin is a fault not to be forgiven in a man or a nation, whereas 
a thin skin is in itself a merit, if only the wearer of it will be the 
master and not the slave of his skin, — O, my friends with thin 
skins, ye whom I call my cousins and love as brethren, will ye 
not forgive me these harsh words that I have spoken ? They 
have been spoken in love, — with a true love, a brotherly love, 
a love that has never been absent from the heart while the brain 



CONCLUSION. 579 

was coming them. I had my task to do, and I could not take 
the pleasant and ignore the painful. It may perhaps be that as 
a friend I had better not have written either good or bad. But 
no ! To say that would indeed be to speak calumny of your 
country. A man may write of you truly, and yet write that 
which you would read with pleasure ; — only that your skins are 
so thin! The streets of Washington are muddy and her ways 
are desolate. The nakedness of Cairo is very naked. And 
those ladies of New York ; is it not to be confessed that they 
are somewhat imperious in their demands ? As for the Van 
Wyck committee, have I not repeated the tale which you have 
told yourselves ? And is it not well that such tales should be 
told ? 

And yet ye will not forgive me ; because your skins are thin, 
and because the j^raise of others is the breath of your nostrils. 

I do not know that an American as an individual is more 
thin-skinned than an Englishman ; but as the representative of 
a nation it may almost be said of him that he has no skin at 
all. Any touch comes at once upon the net-work of his nerves 
and puts in operation all his organs of feeling with the violence 
of a blow. And for this peculiarity he has been made the mark 
of much ridicule. It shows itself in two ways ; either by ex- 
treme displeasure when anything is said disrespectful of his 
country ; or by the strong eulogy with which he is accustomed 
to speak of his own institutions and of those of his countrymen 
wdiom at the moment he may chance to hold in high esteem. 
The manner in which this is done is often ridiculous. " Sir, 
Avhat do you think of our Mr. Jefferson Brick ? Mr. Jefferson 
Brick, sir, is one of our most remarkable men." And again. 
" Do you like our institutions, sir ? Do you find that philan- 
thropy, religion, philosophy, and the social virtues are cultiva- 
ted on a scale commensurate with the unequalled liberty and 
political advancement of the nation?" There is something ab- 
surd in such a mode of address when it is repeated often. But 
hero-worship and love of country are not absurd ; and do not 
(^ these addresses show capacity for hero-worship and an aptitude 
for the love of country ? Jefferson Brick may not be a hero ; 
but a capacity for such worship is something. Indeed the ca- 
pacity is everything, for the need of a hero will at last produce 
the hero needed. And it is the same with that love of country. 
A people that are proud of their country will see that there is 
something in their country to justify their pride. Do we not 
all of us feel assured by the intense nationality of an American 
that he will not desert his nation in the hour of her need ? I 



580 NORTH AMERICA. 

feel that assurance respecting them; and at those moments 
in which I am moved to laughter by the absurdities of their 
addresses, I feel it the strongest. 

I left Boston with the snow, and returning to New York 
found that the streets there were dry and that the winter was 
nearly over. As I had passed through New York to Boston 
the streets had been by no means dry. The snow had lain in 
small mountains over which the omnibuses made their way 
down Broadway, till at the bottom of that thoroughfare, be- 
tween Trinity Church and Bowling Green, alp became piled 
upon alp, and all traffic was full of danger. The accursed love 
of gain still took men to Wall Street, but they had to fight 
their way thither through physical difficulties which must have 
made even the state of the money market a matter almost of 
indifference to them. They do not seem to me to manage the 
winter in New York so w^ell as they do in Boston. But now, 
on my last return thither, the alps were gone, the roads were 
clear, and one could travel through the city with no other im- 
pediment than those of treading on women's dresses, if one 
walked, or having to look after women's band-boxes and pay 
their fares and take their change, if one used the omnibuses. 

And now had come the end of my adventures, and as I set 
my foot once more upon the deck of the Cunard steamer I felt 
that my work was done. Whether it were done ill or well, or 
whether indeed any approach to the doing of it had been at- 
tained, all had been done that I could accomplish. No further 
opportunity remained to me of seeing, hearing, or of speaking. 
I had come out thither, having resolved to learn a little that I 
might if possible teach that little to others; and now the lesson 
was learned, or must remain unlearned. But in carrying out 
my resolution I had gradually risen in my ambition, and had 
mounted from one stage of inquiry to another, till at last I had 
found myself burdened with the task of ascertaining whether 
or no the Americans were doing their work as a nation well or 
ill ; and now if ever, I must be prepared to put forth the result 
of my inquiry. As I walked up and down the deck of the 
steamboat I confess I felt that I had been somewhat arrogant. 

I had been a few days over six months in the States, and I 
was engaged in writing a book of such a nature that a man 
might well engage himself for six years, or perhaps for sixty, 
in obtaining the materials for it. There was nothing in the 
form of government, or legislature, or manners of the people, 
as to which I had not taken upon myself to say something. I 
was professing to understand their strength and their weak- 



CONCLUSION. :581 

ness ; and was daring to censure their faults and to eulogize 
their virtues. "Who is he," an American would say, "that 
he comes and judges us ? His judgment is nothing." "Who 
IS he," an Englishman would say, "that he comes and teaches 
us ? His teaching is of no value." 

In answer to this I have but a small plea to make. I have 
done my best. I have nothing " extenuated, and have set down 
nought in malice." I do feel that my volume has blown 
itself out into a proportion greater than I had intended — 
greater not in mass of pages, but in the matter handled. I 
am frequently addressing my own muse, who I am well aware 
is not Clio, and asking her whither she is wending. " Cease, 
thou wrong-headed one, to meddle with these mysteries." I 
appeal to her frequently, but ever in vain. One cannot drive 
one's muse, nor yet always lead her. Of the various women 
with which a man is blessed, his muse is by no means the least 
difficult to manage. 

But again I put in my slight plea. In doing as I have done, 
I have at least done my best. I have endeavoured to judge 
without prejudice, and to hear with honest ears, and to see 
with honest eyes. The subject, moreover, on which I have 
written, is one which, though great, is so universal in its bear- 
ings, that it may be said to admit of being handled without 
impropriety by the unlearned as well as the learned ; — by those 
who have grown gray in the study of constitutional lore, and 
by those who have simply looked on at the government of men 
as we all look on at those matters which daily surround us. 
There are matters as to which a man should never take a pen 
in hand unless he has given to them much labour. The bota- 
nist must have learned to trace the herbs and flowers before he 
can presume to tell us how God has formed them. But the 
death of Hector is a fit subject for a boy's verses though Ho- 
mer also sang of it. I feel that there is scope for a book on 
the United States' form of government as it was founded, and 
as it has since framed itself, which might do honour to the life- 
long studies of some one of those great constitutional pundits 
whom we have among us ; but, nevertheless, the plain words 
of a man who is no pundit need not disgrace the subject, if 
they be honestly written, and if he who writes them has in his 
heart an honest love of liberty. Such were my thoughts as I 
walked the deck of the Cunard steamer. Then I descended to 
my cabin, settled my luggage, and prepared for the continu- 
ance of my work. It was fourteen days from that time before 
I reached London, but the fourteen days to me were not uu- 



582 NOKTH AMERICA. 

pleasant. The demon of sea-sickness usually spares me, and if 
I can find on board one or two who are equally fortunate — who 
can eat with me, drink with me, and talk with me — I do not 
know that a passage across the Atlantic is by any means a ter- 
rible evil. 

In finishing this volume after the fashion in which it has 
been written throughout, I feel that I am bound to express a 
final opinion on two or three points, and that if I have not 
enabled myself to do so, I have travelled through the country 
in vain. I am bound by the very nature of my undertaking to 
^ay whether, according to such view as I have enabled myself 
*o take of them, the Americans have succeeded as a nation po- 
litically and socially ; and in doing this I ought to be able to 
explain how far slavery has interfered with such success. I am 
bound also, writing at the present moment, to express some 
opinion as to the result of this war, and to declare whether the 
Korth or the South may be expected to be victorious, — explain- 
ing in some rough way what may be the results of such victory, 
and how such results will affect the question of slavery. And 
I shall leave my task unfinished if I do not say what may be 
the possible chances of future quarrel between England and the 
States. That there has been and is much hot blood and angry 
feeling no man doubts; but such angry feeling has existed 
among many nations without any probability of war. In this 
case, with reference to this ill-will that has certainly established 
itself between us and that other peoj^le, is there any need that 
it should be satisfied by war and allayed by blood ? 

No one, I think, can doubt that the founders of the great 
American Commonwealth made an error in omitting to provide 
some means for the gradual extinction of slavery throughout 
the States. That error did not consist in any liking for slavery. 
There was no feeling in favour of slavery on the part of those 
who made themselves prominent at the political birth of the 
nation. I think I shall be justified in saying that at that time 
the opinion that slavery is itself a good thing, that it is an in- 
stitution of divine origin and fit to be perpetuated among men 
as in itself excellent, had not found that favour in the southern 
States in Avhich it is now held. Jefferson, who has been re- 
garded as the leader of the southern or democratic party, has 
left ample testimony that he regarded slavery as an evil. It is, 
I think, true that he gave such testimony much more freely 
when he was speaking or w^riting as a private individual than 
he ever allowed himself to do when his words were armed with 
the Aveight of public authority. But it is clear that, on the 



CONCLUSION. 58^ 

whole, he was opposed to slavery, and I think there can be lit- 
tle doubt that he and his party looked forward to a natural 
death for that evil. Calculation was made that slavery when 
not recruited afresh from Africa could not maintain its num- 
bers, and that gradually the negro population would become 
extinct. This was the error made. It was easier to look for- 
ward to such a result and hope for such an end of the difficulty, 
than to extinguish slavery by a great political movement, which 
must doubtless have been difficult and costly. The northern 
States got rid of slavery by the operation of their separate 
legislatures, some at one date and some at others. The slaves 
were less numerous in the North than in the South, and the 
feeling adverse to slaves, was stronger in the North than in the 
South. Mason and Dixon's line which now separates slave soil 
from free soil, merely indicates the position in the country at 
w^hich the balance turned. Maryland and Virginia were not 
inclined to make great immediate sacrifices for the manumission 
of their slaves ; but the gentlemen of those States did not think 
that slavery Avas a divine institution, destined to flourish for 
ever as a blessing in their land. 

The maintenance of slavery was, T think, a political mistake ; 
— a political mistake, not because slavery is politically wrong, 
but because the politicians of the day made erroneous calcula- 
tions as to the probability of its termination. So the income 
tax may be a political blunder with us ; — not because it is in it- 
self a bad tax, but because those who imposed it conceived that 
they were imposing it for a year or two, w^hereas, now, men do 
not expect to see the end of it. The maintenance of slavery 
was a political mistake ; and I cannot think that the Americans 
in any way lessen the weight of their own error, by protesting, 
as they occasionally do, that slavery was a legacy made over to 
them from England. They might as well say, that travelling 
in carts without springs, at the rate of three miles an hour, was 
a legacy made over to them by England. On that matter of 
travelling they have not been contented with the old habits left 
to them, but have gone ahead and made railroads. In creating 
those railways the merit is due to them ; and so also is the de- 
merit of maintaining those slaves. 

That demerit and that mistake have doubtless brought upon 
the Americans the grievances of their present position ; and 
will, as I think, so far be accompanied by ultimate punishment 
that they will be the immediate means of causing the first dis- 
integration of their nation. I will leave it to the Americans 
themselves to say, whether such disintegration must necessari- 



584 NOETH AMERICA. 

]y imiDly that they have failed in their political undertaking. 
The most loyal citizens of the northern States would have de- 
clared a month or two since, — and for aught I know would de- 
clare now, — that any disintegration of the States implied abso- 
lute failure. One stripe erased from the banner, one star lost 
from the firmament, would entail upon them all the disgrace of 
national defeat ! It had been their boast that they would al- 
ways advance, never retreat. They had looked forward to add 
ever State upon State, and territory to territory, till the whole 
continent should be bound together in the same union. To go 
back from that now, to fall into pieces and be divided, to be- 
come smaller in the eyes of the nations, — to be absolutely half- 
ed, as some would say of such division, would be national dis- 
grace, and would amount to political failure. "Let us fight 
for the whole," such men said, and probably do say. " To lose 
anything is to lose all !'* 

But the citizens of the States who speak and think thus, 
though they may be the most loyal, are perhaps not politically 
the most wise. And I am inclined to think that that defiant 
claim of every star, that resolve to possess every stripe upon 
the banner, had become somewhat less general when I was 
leaving the country than I had found it to be at the time of 
my arrival there. While things were going badly with the 
North, — while there was no tale of any battle to be told ex- 
cept of those at Bull's Run and Springfield, no northern man 
would admit a hint that secession might ultimately prevail in 
Georgia or Alabama. But the rebels had been driven out of 
Missouri when I. was leaving the States, they had retreated al- 
together from Kentucky, having been beaten in one engage- 
ment there, and from a great portion of Tennessee, having been 
twice beaten in that State. The coast of North Carolina, and 
many points of the southern coast, were in the hands of the 
northern army, while the army of the South was retreating 
from all points into the centre of their country. "Whatever 
may have been the strategical merits or demerits of the north- 
ern generals, it is at any rate certain that their apparent suc- 
cesses were greedily welcomed by the people, and created an 
idea that things Avere going well with the cause. And, as all 
this took place, it seemed to me that I heard less about the 
necessary integrity of the old flag. While as yet they were 
altogether unsuccessful, they were minded to make no surren- 
der. But with their successes came the feeling, that in taking 
much they might perhaps allow themselves to yield something. 
This was clearly indicated by the message sent to Congress by 



CONCLUSION. 585 

the President in February (1862), in which he suggested that 
Congress should make arrangements for the purchase of the 
slaves in the border States ; so that in the event of secession — 
accompUshed secession — in the gulf States, the course of those 
border States might be made clear for them. They might hes- 
itate as to going willingly with the North, while possessing 
slaves, — as to setting themselves peaceably down as a small 
slave adjunct to a vast free soil nation, seeing that their projD- 
erty would always be in peril. Under such circumstances a 
slave adjunct to the free soil nation would not long be possible. 
But if it could be shown to them that in the event of their ad- 
hering to the North, compensation would be forthcoming; 
then, indeed, the difficulty in arranging an advantageous line 
between the two future nations might be considerably modified. 
This message of the President's was intended to signify, that 
secession on favourable terms might be regarded by the North 
as not undesirable. Moderate men were beginning to whisper 
that, after all, the gulf States were no source either of national 
wealth or of national honour. Had there not been enough at 
Washington of cotton lords and cotton laws ? When I have 
suggested that no senator from Georgia would ever again sit 
in the United States senate, American gentlemen have received 
my remark with a slight demur, and have then proceeded to 
argue the case. Six months before they would have declaimed 
against me and not have argued. 

I will leave it to Americans themselves to say whether that 
disintegration of the States, should it ever be realized, will im- 
ply that they have failed in their political undertaking. If they 
do not protest that it argues failure, their feelings will not be 
hurt by any such protestations on the part of others. I have 
said that the blunder made by the founders of the nation with 
regard to slavery has brought with it this secession as its pun- 
ishment. But such punishments come generally upon nations 
as great mercies. Ireland's famine was the punishment of her 
imprudence and idleness, but it has given to her prosperity and 
progress. And indeed, to speak with more logical correctness, 
the famine was no punishment to Ireland, nor will secession be 
a punishment to the Northern States. In the long result step 
will have gone on after step, and effect will have followed 
cause, till the American people will at last acknowledge, that 
all these matters have been arranged for their advantage and 
promotion. It may be that a nation now and then goes to the 
wall, and that things go from bad to worse with a large peor 
pie. It has been so with various nations and with many peo- 

Bb2 



586 NORTH AMEEICA. 

pie since history was first written. But when it has been so, 
the people thus punished have been idle and bad. They have 
not only done evil in their generation, but have done more evil 
than good, and have contributed their power to the injury rath- 
er than to the improvement of mankind. It may be that this 
or that national fault may produce or seem to produce some 
consequent calamity. But the balance of good or evil things 
which fall to a people's share will indicate with certainty their 
average conduct as a nation. The one will be the certain con- 
sequence of the other. If it be that the Americans of the 
Northern States have done well in their time, that they have 
assisted in the progress of the world, and made things better 
for mankind rather than worse, then they will come out of this 
trouble without eventual injury. That Avhich came in the guise 
of punishment for a special fault, will be a part of the reward 
resulting from good conduct in the general. And as to this 
matter of slavery, in which I think that they have blundered 
both politically and morally, — has it not been found impossible 
hitherto for them to cleanse their hands of that taint ? But 
that which they could not do for themselves the course of 
events is doing for them. If secession establish herself, though 
it be only secession of the Gulf States, the people of the United 
States will soon be free from slavery. 

In judging of the success or want of success of any political 
institutions or of any form of government, we should be guided, 
I think, by the general results, and not by any abstract rules as 
to the right or wrong of those institutions or of that form. It 
might be easy for a German lawyer to show that our system of 
trial by jury is open to the gravest objections, and that it sins 
against common sense. But if that system gives us substantial 
justice, and protects us from the tyranny of men in office, the 
German lawyer will not succeed in making us believe that it is 
a bad system. When looking into the matter of the schools 
at Boston, I observed to one of the committee of management 
that the statements with which I was supplied, though they 
told me how many of the children went to school, did not tell 
me how long they remained at school. The gentleman replied 
that that information was to be obtained from the result of the 
schooling of the population generally. Every boy and girl 
around us could read and write, and could enjoy reading and 
writing. There was therefore evidence to show that they re- 
mained at school sufficiently long for the required purposes. 
It was fair that I should judge of the system from the results. 
Here in England, we generally object to much that the Amer- 



CONCLUSION. 587 

icans have adopted into their form of government, and think 
that many of their political theories are wrong. We do not 
like universal siiifrage. We do not like a periodical change in 
the first magistrate ; and we like quite as little a periodical 
permanence in the political officers immediately under the chief 
magistrate. We are, in short, wedded to our own forms, and 
therefore opposed by judgment to forms differing from our 
own. But I think we all acknowledge that the United States, 
burdened as they are with these political evils, — as Ave think 
them, have grown in strength and material prosperity with a 
celerity of growth hitherto unknown among nations. We may 
dislike Americans personally, we may find ourselves uncom- 
fortable when there, and unable to sympathize with them when 
away ; we may believe them to be ambitious, unjust, self-idola- 
trous, or irreligious. But, imless we throw our judgment alto- 
gether overboard, we cannot believe them to be a weak peo- 
ple, a poor people, a peoj^le with low spirits, or a peoj^le with 
idle hands. To what is it that the government of a country 
should chiefly look ? What special advantages do we expect 
from our own government? Is it not that we should be safe 
at home and respected abroad ; — that laws should be maintain- 
ed, but that they should be so maintained that they should not 
be oppressive? There are, doubtless, countries in which the 
government professes to do much more than this for its peo- 
ple, — countries in which the government is paternal ; in which 
it regulates the religion of the people, and professes to enforce 
on all the national children respect for the governors, teachers, 
spiritual pastors, and masters. But that is not our idea of a 
government. That is not what we desire to see established 
among ourselves or established among others. Safety from 
foreign foes, respect from foreign foes and friends, security un- 
der the law and security from the law, — this is what we expect 
from our government ; and if I add to this that we expect to 
have these good things provided at a fairly moderate cost, I 
think I have exhausted the list of our requirements. 

And if the Americans with their form of government have 
done for themselves all that we expect our government to do 
for us ; if they have with some fair approach to general excel- 
lence obtained respect abroad, and security at home from for- 
eign foes ; if they have made life, liberty, and property safe un- 
der their laws, and have also so written and executed their laws 
as to secure their people from legal oppression, — I maintain that 
they are entitled to a verdict in their favour, let us object as we 
may to universal suffrage, to four years' Presidents, and four 



588 NORTH AMERICA. 

years' presidential cabinets. What, after all, matters the theory 
or the system, whether it be King or President, universal suf- 
frage or ten-pound voter, so long as the people be free and pros- 
pei-ous ? King and President, suffrage by poll and suffrage by 
})roperty, are but the means. If the end be there, if the thing 
has been done. King and President, open suffrage and close 
suffrage may alike be declared to have been successful. The 
Americans have been in existence as a nation for seventy-five 
years, and have achieved an amount of foreign respect during 
that period greater than any other nation ever obtained in 
double the time. And this has been given to them, not in def- 
erence to the statesman-like craft of their diplomatic and other 
officers, but on grounds the very opposite of those. It has been 
given to them because they form a numerous, wealthy, brave, 
and self-asserting nation. It is, I think, unnecessary to prove 
that such foreign respect has been given to them : but were it 
necessary, nothing would prove it more strongly than the re- 
gard which has been universally paid by European govern- 
ments to the blockade placed during this Avar on the southern 
ports, by the government of the United States. Had the Unit- 
ed States been placed by general consent in any class of nations 
beloAV the first, England, France, and perhaps Russia, would 
have taken the matter into their own hands, and have settled 
for the States, either united or disunited, at any rate that ques- 
tion of the blockade. And the Americans have been safe at 
home from foreign foes ; so safe, that no other strong peojDle 
but ourselves have enjoyed anything approaching to their se- 
curity since their foundation. Nor has our security been equal 
to theirs if we are to count our nationality as extending beyond 
the British Isles. Then as to security under their laws and 
from their laws ! Those laws and the system of their manage- 
ment have been taken almost entirely from us, and have so 
been administered that life and property have been safe, and 
the subject also has been free from oppression. I think that 
this may be taken for granted, seeing that they who have been 
most opposed to American forms of government, have never 
asserted the reverse. I may be told of a man being lynched in 
one State, or tarred and feathered in another, or of a duel in a 
third being " fought at sight." So I may be told also of men 
being garroted in London, and of tithe proctors buried in a bog 
without their ears in Ireland. Neither will seventy years of 
continuance nor will seven hundred secure such an observance 
of laws as will prevent temporary ebullition of popular feeling, 
or save a people from the chance disgrace of occasional out- 



CONCLUSION. 589 

rage. Taking the general, life and limb and j)ropei'ty have 
been as safe in the States as in other civilized countries Avith 
Avhich we are acquainted. 

As to their personal liberty under their laws, I know it will be 
said that they have surrendered all claim to any such precious 
possession by the facility with which they have now surrendered 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. It has been taken 
from them, as I have endeavoured to show, illegally, and they 
have submitted to the loss and to the illegality without a mur- 
mur! But in such a matter I do not think it fair to judge them 
by their conduct in such a moment as the present. That this is 
the very moment in which to judge of the efficiency of their in- 
stitutions generally, of the aptitude of those institutions for the 
security of the nation, I readily acknowledge. But when a 
ship is at sea in a storm, riding out all that the winds and 
waves can do to her, one does not condemn her because a yard- 
arm gives way, nor even though the mainmast should go by 
the board. If she can make her port, saving life and cargo, she 
is a good ship, let her losses in spars and rigging be what they 
may. In this affair of the habeas corpus we will wait a while 
before we come to any final judgment. If it be that the peo- 
ple, when the war is over, shall consent to live under a military 
or other dictatorship, — that they shall quietly continue their 
course as a nation without recovery of their rights of freedom, 
then we shall have to say that their institutions were not found- 
ed in a soil of sufficient depth, and that they gave way before 
the first high wind that blew on them. I myself do not expect 
such a result. 

I think we must admit that the Americans have received 
from their government, or rather from their system of policy, 
that aid and furtherance which they required from it; and, 
moreover, such aid and furtherance as we expect from our sys- 
tem of government. We must admit that they have been 
great, and free, and prosperous, as we also have become. And 
we must admit, also, that in some matters they have gone for- 
ward in advance of us. They have educated their people, as 
we have not educated ours. They have given to their millions 
a personal respect, and a standing above the abjectness of pov- 
erty, which Avith us are much less general than with them. 
These things, I grant, have not come of their government, and 
have not been produced by their written constitution. They 
are the happy results of their happy circumstances. But so, 
also, those evil attributes which we sometimes assign to them 
are not the creatures of their government, or of their constitu' 



590 NORTH AMERICA. 

tion. We acknowledge them to be well educated, intelligent, 
philanthropic, and industrious ; but we say that they are ambi- 
tious, unjust, self-idolatrous, and irreligious. If so, let us at any 
rate balance the virtues against the vices. As to their ambi- 
tion, it is a vice that leans so to virtue's side, that it hardly 
needs an apology. As to their injustice, or rather dishonesty, 
I have said what I have to say on that matter. I am not 
going to flinch from the accusation I have brought, though I 
am aware that in bringing it I have thrown away any hope 
that I might have had, of carrying with me the good will of 
the Americans for my book. The love of money, — or rather 
of making money, — carried to an extreme, has lessened that 
instinctive respect for the rights of meum and tuum which 
all men feel more or less, and which, when encouraged within 
the human breast, finds its result in perfect honesty. Other 
nations, of which I will not now stop to name even one, have 
had their periods of natural dishonesty. It may be that oth- 
ers are even now to be placed in the same category. But it 
is a fault which industry and intelligence combined will after 
a while serve to lessen and to banish. The industrious man 
desires to keep the fruit of his own industry, and the intelli- 
gent man will ultimately be able to do so. That the Ameri- 
cans are self-idolaters is perhaps true, — with a diflerence. An 
American desires you to worship his country, or his brother; 
but he does not often, by any of the usual signs of conceit, call 
upon you to worship himself. As an American, treating of 
America, he is self-idolatrous ; but that is a self-idolatry which 
I can endure. Then, as to his want of religion — and it is a 
very sad want — I can only say of him, that I, as an English- 
man, do not feel myself justified in flinging the first stone at 
him. In that matter of religion, as in the matter of education, 
the American, I think, stands on a level higher than ours. 
There is not in the States so absolute an ignorance of religion 
as is to be found in some of our manufacturing and mining dis- 
tricts, and also, alas ! in some of our agricultural districts ; but 
also, I think, there is less of respect and veneration for God's 
word among their educated classes, than there is with us ; and, 
perhaps, also less knowledge as to God's word. The general 
religious level is, I think, higher with them ; but there is with 
us, if I am right in my supposition, a higher eminence in re- 
ligion, as there is also a deeper depth of ungodliness. 
I I think then that we are bound to acknowledge that the 
^^ Americans have succeeded as a nation, politically and socially. 
V/hen I speak of social success, I do not mean to say that their 



CONCLUSION". 591 

manners are correct according to this or that standard. I will 
not say that they are correct, or are not correct. In that mat- 
ter of manners I have found that those with whom it seemed 
to me natural that I should associate, were very pleasant ac- 
cording to my standard. I do not know that I am a good 
critic on such a subject, or that I have ever thought much of 
it with the view of criticising. I have been happy and com- 
fortable with them, and for me that has been sufficient. In 
speaking of social success I allude to their success in private 
life as distinguished from that which they have achieved in 
public life ; — to their successes in commerce, in mechanics, in 
the comforts and luxuries of life, in medicine and all that leads 
to the solace of affliction, in literature, and I may add also, 
considering the youth of the nation, in the arts. We are, I 
think, bound to acknowledge that they have succeeded. And 
if they have succeeded, it is vain for us to say that a system is 
wrong which has, at any rate, admitted of such success. That 
which was wanted from some form of government, has been 
obtained with much more than average excellence ; and there- 
fore the form adopted has approved itself as good. You may 
explain to a farmer's wife with indisputable logic, that her 
cliurn is a bad churn ; but as long as she turns out butter in 
greater quantity, in better quality, and with more profit than 
her neighbours, you will hardly induce her to change it. It 
may be that with some other churn she might have done even 
better ; but, under such circumstances, she will have a right to 
think well of the churn she uses. 

The American constitution is now, I think, at the crisis of 
its severest trial. I conceive it to be by no means perfect, even 
for the wants of the people who use it ; and I have already 
endeavoured to explain what changes it seems to need. And 
it has had this defect, — that it has permitted a falling away 
from its intended modes of action, while its letter has been 
kept sacred. As I have endeavoured to show, universal suf- 
frage and democratic action in the Senate were not intended 
by the framers of the constitution. In this respect, the consti- 
tution has, as it were, fallen through, and it is needed that its 
very beams should be re-strengthened. There are also other 
matters as to which it seems that some change is indispensa- 
ble. So much I have admitted. But, not the less, judging of 
it by the entirety of the work that it has done, I think that we 
are bound to own that it has been successful. 

And now, with regard to this tedious war, of which from 
day to day we are still, in this month of May, 1862, hearing 



592 NORTH AMERICA. 

details which teach us to think that it can hardly as yet be 
near its end ; — to what may we rationally look as its result ? 
Of one thing I myself feel tolerably certain, — that its result 
will not be nothing, as some among us have seemed to suppose 
may be probable. I cannot believe that all this energy on the 
part of the North will be of no avail, more than I suppose that 
southern perseverance will be of no avail. There are those 
among us who say that as secession will at last be accom- 
plished, the North should have yielded to the South at once, 
and that nothing will be gained by their great expenditure of 
life and treasure. I can by no means bring myself to agree 
with these. I also look to the establishment of secession. See- 
ing how essential and thorough are the points of variance be- 
tween the North and the South, how unlike the one people is 
to the other, and how necessary it is that their policies should 
be different; seeing how deep are their antipathies, and how 
fixed is each side in the belief of its own rectitude and in the 
belief also of the other's political baseness, I cannot believe 
that the really southern States will ever again be joined in ami- 
cable union with those of the North. They, the States of the 
Gulf, may be utterly subjugated, and the North may hold over 
them military power. Georgia and her sisters may for a while 
belong to the IJnion, as one conquered country belongs to an- 
other. But I do not think that they will ever act with the 
Union ; — and, as I imagine, the Union before long Avill agree to 
a separation. I do not mean to prophesy that the result will 
be thus accomplished. It may be that the South will effect 
their own independence before they lay down their arms. I 
think, however, that we may look forward to such indepen- 
dence, whether it be achieved in that Avay, or in this, or in 
some other. 

But not on that account will the war have been of no avail 
to the North. I think it must be already evident to all those 
who have looked into the matter, that had the North yielded 
to the first call made by the South for secession all the slave 
States must have gone. Maryland would have gone, carrying 
Delaware in its arms; and if Maryland, all south of Maryland. 
If Maryland had gone, the capital would have gone. If the 
Government had resolved to yield, Virginia to the east would 
assuredly have gone, and I think there can be no doubt that 
Missouri, to the West, would have gone also. The feeling for 
the Union in Kentucky was very strong, but I do not think 
that even Kentucky could have saved itself To have yielded 
to the southern demands would have been to have yielded 



CONCLUSION. 593 

everything. But no man now believes, let the contest go as 
it will, that Maryland and Delaware will go with the South. 
The secessionists of Baltimore do not think so, nor the gentle- 
nien and ladies of Washington, whose whole hearts are in the 
southern cause. No man thinks that Maryland will go; and 
few, I believe, imagine that either Missouri or Kentucky will 
be divided from the North. I will not pretend what may be 
the exact line, but I myself feel confident that it will run south 
both of Virginia and of Kentucky. 

If the North do conquer the South, and so arrange their 
matters that the southern States shall again become members 
of the Union, it will be admitted that they have done all that 
they sought to do. If they do not do this ; — if instead of do- 
ing this, which would be all that they desire, they were in 
truth to do nothing ; — to win finally not one foot of ground 
from the South, — a supposition which I regard as impossible ; 
— I think that we should still admit after a while that they had 
done their duty in endeavouring to maintain the integrity of the 
empire. But if, as a third and more probable alternative, they 
succeed in rescuing from the South and from slavery four or 
five of the finest States of the old Union, — a vast portion of the 
continent, to be beaten by none other in salubrity, fertility, 
beauty, and political importance, — will it not then be admitted 
that the w^ar has done some good, and that the life and treas- 
ure have not been spent in vain ? 

That is the termination of the contest to which I look for- 
w^ard. I think that there will be secession, but that the terms 
of secession will be dictated by the North, not by the South ; 
and among these terms I expect to see an escape from slavery 
for those border States to which I have alluded. In that prop- 
osition which, in February last (1862), was made by the Pres- 
ident, and which has since been sanctioned by the Senate, I 
think we may see the first step towards this measure. It may 
probably be the case that many of the slaves will be driven 
south ; that as the owners of those slaves are driven from their 
holdings in Virginia they will take their slaves with them, or 
send them before them. The manumission, w^hen it reaches 
Virginia, will not probably enfranchise the half million of slaves 
who, in 1860, were counted among its population. But as to 
that I confess myself to be comparatively careless. It is not 
the concern which I have now at heart. For myself, I shall 
feel satisfied if that manumission shall reach the million of 
whites by whom Virginia is populated ; or if not that million 
in its integrity then that other million by which its rich soil 



594 NORTH AMERICA. 

would soon be tenanted. There are now about four millions 
of white men and women inhabiting the slave States which 
I have described, and I think it will be acknowledged that the 
northern States will have done something with their armies if 
they succeed in rescuing those four millions from the stain and 
evil of slavery. 

There is a third question which I have asked myself, and to 
Avhich I have undertaken to give some answer. When this 
war be over between the northern and southern States will 
there come upon us Englishmen a necessity of fighting with 
the Americans ? If there do come such necessity, arising out 
of our conduct to the States during the period of their civil 
war, it will indeed be hard upon us, as a nation, seeing the 
struggle that we have made to be juSt in our dealings towards 
the States generally, whether they be North or South. To be 
just in such a period, and under such circumstances, is very 
difficult. In that contest between Sardinia and Austria it was 
all but impossible to be just to the Italians without being un- 
just to the Emperor of Austria. To have been strictly just at 
the moment one should have begun by confessing the injustice 
of so much that had gone before! But in this American con- 
test such justice, though difficult, was easier. Affiiirs of trade 
rather than of treaties chiefly interfered ; and these aflairs, by 
a total disregard of our own pecuniary interests, could be so 
managed that justice might be done. This I think was effect- 
ed. It may be, of course, that I am prejudiced on the side of 
my own nation; but striving to judge of the matter as best X 
may without prejudice, I cannot see that we, as a nation, have 
in aught oftended against the strictest justice in our dealings 
with America during this contest. But justice has not sufficed. 
I do not know that our bitterest foes in the northern States 
have accused us of acting unjustly. It is not justice which 
they have looked for at our hands, and looked for in vain ; — 
not justice, but generosity ! AYe have not, as they say, sym- 
pathized with them in their trouble ! It seems to me that such 
a complaint is unworthy of them as a nation, as a people, or as 
individuals. In such a matter generosity is another name for 
injustice, — as it too often is in all matters. A generous sym- 
pathy with the North would have been an ostensible and 
crushing enmity to the South. We could not have sympa- 
thized witli the North without condemning the South, and 
telling to the world that the South were our enemies. In or- 
dering his own household a man should not want generosity or 
sympathy from the outside ; and if not a man, then certainly 



CONCLUSION. 595 

not a nation. Generosity between nations must in its very na- 
ture be wrong. One nation may be just to another, courteous 
to another, even considerate to another with propriety. But 
no nation can be generous to another without injustice either 
to some third nation, or to itself. 

But though no accusation of unfairness has, as far as I am 
aware, ever been made by the government of Washington 
against the government of London, there can be no doubt that 
a very strong feeling of antipathy to England has sprung up in 
America during this war, and that it is even yet so intense in 
its bitterness, that were the North to become speedily victori- 
ous in their present contest very many Americans would be 
anxious to turn their arms at once against Canada. And I fear 
that that fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac has 
strengthened this wish by giving to the Americans an unwar- 
ranted confidence in their capability of defending themselves 
against any injury from British shipping. It may be said by 
them, and probably would be said by many of them, that this 
feeling of enmity had not been engendered by any idea of na- 
tional injustice on our side ; — that it might reasonably exist, 
though no suspicion of such injustice had arisen in tlie minds 
of any. They would argue that the hatred on their part had 
been engendered by scorn on ours, — by scorn and ill words 
heaped upon them in their distress. 

They would say that slander, scorn, and uncharitable judg- 
ments create deeper feuds than do robbery and violence, and 
produce deej^er enmity and worse rancour. " It is because we 
have been scorned by England, that we hate England. We 
have been told from week to week, and from day to day, that 
Ave were fools, cowards, knaves, and madmen. We have been 
treated with disrespect, and that disrespect Ave will avenge." 
It is thus that they speak of England, and there can be no 
doubt that the opinion so expressed is A^ery general. It is not 
my purpose here to say Avhether in this respect England has 
given cause of ofience to the States, or Avhether either country 
has given cause of oifence to the other. On both sides have 
many hard Avords been spoken, and on both sides also have 
good Avords been spoken. It is unfortunately the case that hard 
Avords are pregnant, and as such they are read, digested, and 
remembered ; Avhile good words are generally so dull that no- 
body reads them willingly, and AA'hen read they are forgotten. 
For many years there have been hard Avords bandied backwards 
and forwards betAveen England and the United States, showing 
mutual jealousies and a disposition on the part of each nation 



596 XOKTH AMERICA. 

to spare no fault committed by the other. This has grown of 
rivahy between the two, and in fact proves the respect which 
each has for the other's power and wealth. I will not now pre- 
tend to say with which side has been the chiefest blame, if there 
has been chiefest blame on either side. But I do say that it is 
monstrous in any people or in any person to suppose that such 
bickerings can afford a proper ground for war. I am not about 
to dilate on the horrors of war. Horrid as war may be, and full 
of evil, it is not so horrid to a nation, nor so full of evil, as na- 
tional insult unavenged, or as national injury unredressed. A 
blow taken by a nation and taken without atonement is an ac- 
knowledgment of national inferiority than which any war is 
preferable. IS^either England nor the States are inclined to take 
such blows. But such a blow, before it can be regarded as a 
national insult, as a wrong done by one nation on another, must 
be inflicted by the political entity of the one on the political en- 
tity of the other. 'No angry clamours of the press, no declama- 
tions of orators, no voices from the people, no studied criticisms 
from the learned few or unstudied censures from society at 
large, can have any fair weight on such a question or do aught 
towards justifying a national quarrel. They cannot form a casus 
belli. Those two Latin words, which we all understand, explain 
this with the utmost accuracy. Were it not so, the peace of 
the world would indeed rest upon sand. Causes of national 
difference will arise, — for governments will be unjust as are in- 
dividuals. And causes of difference will arise because govern- 
ments are too blind to distinguish the just from the unjust. 
But in such cases the government acts on some ground wliich 
it declares. It either shows or pretends to show some casus 
belli. But in this matter of threatened war between the States 
and England it is declared openly that such war is to take place 
because the English have abused the Americans, and because, 
consequently, the Americans hate the English. There seems 
to exist an impression that no other ostensible ground for fight- 
ing need be shown, although such an event as that of war be- 
tween the two nations would, as all men acknowledge, be ter- 
rible in its results. " Your newspapers insulted us when we 
were in our difficulties. Your writers said evil things of us. 
Your legislators spoke of us with scorn. You exacted from- us 
a disagreeable duty of retribution just when the performance of 
such a duty Avas most odious to us. You have shown symp- 
toms of joy at our sorrow. And, therefore, as soon as our 
hands are at liberty, we will fight you." I have known school- 
boys to argue in that way, and the arguments have been Intel- 



i 



CONCLUSION. 597 

ligible. But I cannot understand that any government should 
admit such an argument. 

Nor will the American government willingly admit it. Ac- 
cording to existing theories of government the armies of na- 
tions are but the tools of the governing jDowers. If at the close 
of the present civil war the American government, — the old 
civil government consisting of the President with such checks 
as Congress constitutionally has over him, — shall really hold 
the power to which it pretends, I do not fear that there will be 
any war. No President, and I think no Congress, will desire 
such a war. Nor will the people clamour for it, even should 
the idea of such a war be popular. The people of America are 
not clamorous against their government. If there be such a 
Avar it will be because the army shall have then become more 
powerful than the Government. If the President can hold his 
own the people will support him in his desire for peace. But 
if the President do not hold his own, — if some General with 
two or three hundred thousand men at his back shall then have 
the upper hand in the nation, — it is too probable that the peo- 
ple may back him. The old game will be played again that 
has so often been played in the history of nations, and some 
wretched military aspirant will go forth to flood Canada with 
blood, in order that the feathers in his cap may flaunt in men's 
eyes and that he may be talked of for some years to come as 
one of the great curses let loose by the Almighty on mankind. 

I must confess that there is danger of this. To us the dan- 
ger is very great. It cannot be good for us to send ships laden 
outside with iron shields instead of inside with soft goods and 
hardware to those thickly thronged American ports. It can- 
not be good for us to have to throw milHons into those harbours 
instead of taking millions out from them. It cannot be good 
for us to export thousands upon thousands of soldiers to Cana- 
da of whom only hundreds would return. The whole turmoil, 
cost, and paraphernalia of such a course would be injurious to 
us in the extreme, and the loss of our commerce would be near- 
ly ruinous. But the injury of such a war to us would be as 
nothing to the injury which it would inflict upon the States. 
To them for many years it would be absolutely ruinous. It 
would entail not only all those losses which such a war must 
bring with it ; but that greater loss which would arise to the 
nation from the fact of its having been powerless to prevent it. 
Such a war would prove that it had lost the freedom for which 
it had struggled, and which for so many years it has enjoyed. 
For the sake of that people as well as for our own, — and for 



598 NORTH AMERICA. 

their sakes rather than for onr own, — let us, as far as may be, 
abstain from words which are needlessly injurious. They have 
done much that is great and noble, even since this war has be- 
gun, and we have been slow to acknowledge it. They have 
made sacrifices for the sake of their country which we have 
ridiculed. They have struggled to maintain a good cause, and 
we have disbelieved in their earnestness. They have been anx- 
ious to abide by their constitution, which to them has been as 
it were a second gospel, and we have spoken of that constitu- 
tion as though it had been a thing of mere words in which life 
had never existed. This has been done w^iile their hands were 
very full and their back heavily laden. Such words coming 
from us, or from parties among us, cannot justify those threats 
of war which we hear spoken ; but that they should make the 
hearts of men sore and their thoughts bitter against us can 
hardly be matter of surprise. 

As to the result of any such war between us and them, it 
would depend mainly, I think, on the feelings of the Canadians. 
Neither could they annex Canada without the good-will of the 
Canadians, nor could we keep Canada without that good-will. 
At present the feeling in Canada against the northern States is 
so strong and so universal that England has little to fear on 
that head. 

I have now done my task, and may take leave of my readers 
on either side of the water with a hearty hope that the existing 
war between the North and South may soon be over, and that 
none other may follow on its heels to exercise that new-fledged 
military skill which the existing quarrel will have produced on 
the other side of the Atlantic. I have written my book in ob- 
scure language if I have not shown that to me social successes 
and commercial prosperity are much dearer than any greatness 
that can be won by arms. The Americans had fondly thought 
that they were to be exempt from' the curse of war, — at any 
rate from the bitterness of the curse. But the days for such 
exemption have not come as yet. While we are hurrying on 
to make twelve-inch shield-plates for our men-of-war, we can 
hardly dare to think of the days w^hen the sword shall be turn- 
ed into the ploughshare. May it not be thought well for us if, 
with such work on our hands, any scraps of iron shall be left to 
us with which to pursue the purposes of peace ? But at least 
let us not have war with these children of our own. If we 
must fight, let us fight tlie French, " for King George upon the 
throne." The doing so will be disagreeable, but it will not be 
antipathetic to the nature of an Englishman. For my part, 



COJs^CLUSION. 599 

when an American tells me that he wants to fight with me, I 
regard his oifence as compared with that of a Frenchman un- 
der the same circumstances, as I would compare the oflence of 
a parricide or a fratricide with that of a mere common-place 
murderer. Such a war would be plus quam civile bellum. 
Which of us two could take a thrashing from the other and af- 
terwards go about our business with contentment ? 

On our return to Liverpool, we stayed for a few hours at 
Queenstown, taking in coal, and the passengers landed that they 
might stretch their legs and look about them. I also went 
ashore at the dear old place which I had known well in other 
days, when the people were not too grand to call it Cove, and 
Avere contented to run down from Cork in river steamers, be- 
fore the Passage railway was built. I spent a pleasant summer 
there once in those times; — God be with the good old days! 
And now I went ashore at Queenstown, happy to feel that I 
should be again in a British isle, and happy also to know that 
I was once more in Ireland. And when the people came around 
me as they did, I seemed to know every face and to be famil- 
iar with every voice. It has been my fate to have so close an 
intimacy Avith Ireland, that when I meet an Irishman abroad, I 
always recognize in him more of a kinsman than I do in an En- 
glishman. I never ask an Englishman from what county he 
comes, or what was his town. To Irishmen I usually put such 
questions, and I am generally familiar with the old haunts which 
they name. I was happy therefore to feel myself again in Ire- 
land, and to walk round from Queenstown to the river at Pas- 
sage by the old way that had once been familiar to my feet. 

Or rather I should have been happy if I had not found my- 
self instantly disgraced by the importunities of my friends I 
A legion of women surrounded me, imploring alms, begging 
my honour to bestow my charity on them for the love of the 
Virgin, using the most holy names in their adjurations for half- 
pence, clinging to me with that half joking, half lachrymose air 
of importunity which an Irish beggar has assumed as peculiar- 
ly her own. There were men too, who begged as well as 
women. And the women were sturdy and fat, and, not know- 
ing me as well as I knew them, seemed resolved that their im- 
portunities should be successful. After all, I had an old world 
liking for them in their rags. They were endeared to me by 
certain memories and associations which I cannot define. But 
then what would those Americans think of them ; — of them 
and of the country which produced them ? That was the re- 
liection which troubled me. A leofion of women in raajs clam- 



600 NOBTIl AMERICA. 

orous for bread, protesting to heaven that they are starving, 
importunate with voices and with hands, surrounding the 
stranger when he puts his foot on the soil so that he cannot es- 
cape, does not afford to the cynical American who then first 
visits us, — and they all are cynical when they visit us, — a bad 
opportunity for his sarcasm. He can at any rate boast that he 
sees nothing of that at home. I myself am fond of Irish beg- 
gars. It is an acquired taste, — which comes upon one as does 
that for smoked whisky, or Limerick tobacco. But I certainly 
did wish that there were not so many of them at Queenstown. 

I tell all this here not to the disgrace of Ireland ; — not for 
the triumph of America. The Irishman or American who 
thinks rightly on the subject will know tliat the state of each 
country has arisen from its opportunities. Beggary does not 
prevail in new countries, and but few old countries have man- 
aged to exist without it. As to Ireland we may rejoice to say 
that there is less of it now than there was twenty years since. 
Things are mending there. But though such excuses may bo 
truly made, — although an Englishman when he sees this squal- 
or and poverty on the quays at Queenstown, consoles himself 
with reflecting that the evil has been unavoidable, but will per- 
haps soon be avoided, — nevertheless he cannot but remember 
that there is no such squalor and no such poverty in the land 
from which he has returned. I claim no credit for the new 
country. I impute no blame to the old country. But there is 
the fact. The Irishman when he expatriates himself to one of 
those American States loses much of that affectionate, confid- 
ing, master-worshipping nature which makes him so good a 
fellow when at home. But he becomes more of a man. He 
assumes a dignity which he never has known before. He learns 
to regard his labour as his own property. That which he earns 
he takes without thanks, but lie desires to take no more than 
he earns. To me personally he has perhaps become less pleas- 
ant than he was. But to himself — ! It seems to me that such 
a man must feel himself half a god, if he has the power of com- 
paring what he is with what he was. 

It is right that all this should be acknowledged by us. When 
we speak of America and of her institutions we should remem- 
ber that she has given to our increasing population rights and 
privileges which we could not give ; — which as an old country 
we probably can never give. That self-asserting, obtrusive in- 
dependence Avhich so often wounds us, is, if viewed aright, but 
an outward sign of those good things which a new country 
has produced for its people. Men and women do not beg in 



CONCLUSION. 601 

the States ; — they do not offend you with tattered rags ; they 
do not complain to heaven of starvation ; they do not crouch 
to the ground for halfpence. If poor, they are not abject in 
their poverty. They read and write. They walk like human 
beings made in God's form. They know that they are men 
and women, owing it to themselves and to the world that they 
should earn their bread by their labour, but feeling that when 
earned it is their own. If this be so, — if it be acknowledged 
that it is so, — should not such knowledge in itself be sufficient 
testimony of the success of the country and of her institutions? 

C c 



1 



APPENDICES. 



A. 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people 
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and 
to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect 
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which 
impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure 
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; and that, whenever any form of govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter 
or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dic- 
tate that governments, long established, should not be changed for light and 
transient causes ; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind 
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
selves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a 
long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
it is their duty, to throv,' off such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the colonies, 
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former 
systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is 
a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the 
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let 
facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for 
the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing im- 
portance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be ob- 
tained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts 
of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in 
the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, 
and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose 
of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly 
firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 



604 APPENDICES. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to 
be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 
returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the 
meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convul- 
sions within. 

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States ; for that pur- 
pose, obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration thither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their 
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers 
to harass our people, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the con- 
sent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the 
civil power. 

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts 
of pretended legislation. 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders 
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States. 

For cutting off our trade Avith all parts of the world. 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent. 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury. 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences. 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, 
so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the 
same absolute rule into these colonies. 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and alter- 
ing, fundamentally, the forms of our governments. 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested 
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection 
and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and de- 
stroyed the lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to 
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with 
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous 
ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to 
bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends, 
and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to 
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, s€xes, 
and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 605 

most humble terms. Onr repeated petitions have been answered only by re- 
peated injuries. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act 
which may define a tyrant, is imfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have 
warned them, from time to time, of the attempts by their legislature, to ex- 
tend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the 
circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to 
their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties 
of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevita- 
bly interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been 
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac- 
quiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as 
we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in 
General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world 
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of 
the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these 
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; 
that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all 
political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought 
to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent States, they have 
full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of 
right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on 
the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. 

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed 
by the following members : 

JOHN HANCOCK. 

Neio Hampshire. New York. 

JosiAH Bartlett, William Floyd, 

William Whipple, Philip Livingston, 

Matthew Thornton. Francis Lewis, 

Lewis Morris. 
Massachusetts Bay. 

Samuel Adams, ^''" ^^'•''^• 

John Adams, Richard Stockton, 

Robert Treat Paine, John Witherspoon, 

Elbridge Gerry. Francis Hopkinson, 

John Hart, 

Rhode Island. Abraham Clark. 
Stephen Hopkins, _ 

William Ellery. Pennsylvania. 

Robert Morris, 

Connecticut. Benjamin Rush, 

Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, 

Samuel Huntington, John Morton, 

William Williams, George Clymer, 

Oliver Wolcott. James Smith, 



608 



APPENDICES. 



George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Eoss. 

Delaware. 

C^sar Eodney, 
George Read, 
Thomas M'Kean. 

Maryland. 

Samuel Chase, 
William Faca, 
Thomas Stone, 
Charles Carroll, of CarroUton. 

Virginia. 
George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
4 July, 1776. 



Thomas Nelson, Jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

North Carolina. 
William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Fenn. 

South Carolina. 
Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Heyward, Jr., 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia. 

Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
George Walton. 



ARTICLES or CONFEDERATION, ETC. 

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME: 
We, the undersigned, delegates of the States, affixed to our names, send greeting : 
Whereas, the delegates of the United States of America, in Congress as- 
sembled did, on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, and in the second year of the in- 
dependence of America, agree to certain articles of confederation and per- 
petual union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, 
Rhode Island and Providence PLantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and Georgia, in the words following, viz. : 

Articles of confederation and perpetual union between the States of New Hampshire, Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia. 

Article 1. The style of this confederacy shall be, "The United States of 
America." 

Art. 2. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and 
every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation ex- 
pressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. 

Art. 3. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friend-- 
ship with each other for their common defence, the security of their liberties, 
and their mutual and general welfare ; binding themselves to assist each 
other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, 
on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretext whatever. 

Art. 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and inter- 
course among the people of the different States in this union, the free inhab- 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 607 

itants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice 
excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens 
in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress 
and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the priv- 
ileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and 
restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such re- 
strictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property im- 
ported into any State to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabi- 
tant ; provided, also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction, shall be laid 
by any State on the property of the United States, or either of them. 

If any person guilty of or charged with treason, felony, or other high misde- 
meanor, in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United 
States, he shall upon demand of the Governor, or executive power of the State 
from which he fled, be delivered up, and removed to the State having juris- 
diction of his offence. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, 
acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other 
State. 

Art. 5. For the more convenient management of the general interests of 
the United. States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as 
the legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first 
Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to 
recall its delegates or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send 
others in their stead for the remainder of the year. 

No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two nor more than 
seven members ; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more 
than three yeai-s in any term of six years ; nor shall any person, being a del- 
egate, be capable of holding an office under the United States, for which 
he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any 
kind. 

Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the States, and 
while they act as members of the committee of the States. 

In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each 
State shall have one vote. 

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or ques- 
tioned in any court or place out of Congress ; and the members of Congress 
shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonments, during the 
time of their going to and from and attendance on Congress, except for trea- 
son, felony, or breach of the peace. 

Art. 6. No State, without the consent of the United States in Congress 
assembled, shall send an embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter 
into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty, with any king, prince, or 
State ; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the 
United States or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or 
title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State ; nor shall 
the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of 
nobility. 

No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alli- 
ance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in 
Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purpose for which the same is 
to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. 

No State shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any 
stipulations in treaties entered into by the United States in Congress assem- 



608 APPENDICES. 

bled, with any king, prince, or State, in pursuance of any treaties already 
proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain. 

No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace, by any State, except 
such number as shall be deemed necessary by the United States in Congress 
assembled, for the defence of such State or its trade ; nor shall any body of 
forces be kept up by any State in time of peace, except such number only as, 
in the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled, shall be deemed 
requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of such State ; but 
every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, suf- 
ficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and have constantly ready 
for use, in public stores, a number of field pieces and tents, and a proper 
quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. 

No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States 
in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or 
shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation 
of Indians to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to ad- 
mit of a delay till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted ; 
nor shall any State grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, or let- 
ters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United 
States in Congress assembled, and then only against the Kingdom or State, 
and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under 
such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress as- 
sembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war 
may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall con- 
tinue, or until the United States in Congress assembled shall determine oth- 
erwise. 

Art. 7. When land forces are raised by any State for the common defence, 
all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legisla- 
ture of each State respectively, by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such 
manner as such State shall direct ; and all vacancies shall be'fiUed up by the 
State which first made the appointment. 

Art. 8. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred 
for the common defence or general welfare, and allowed by the United States 
in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury which 
shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land 
within each State granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the 
buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated, according to such 
mode as the United States in Congress assembled shall from time to time di- 
rect and appoint. 

The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the au- 
thority and direction of the legislatures of the several States, within the time 
agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. 

Art. 9. The United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and 
exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the 
cases mentioned in the sixth Article : of sending and receiving ambassadors : 
entering into treaties and alliances; provided that no treaty of commerce 
shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be 
restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own 
people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation 
of any species of goods or commodities whatsoever : of establishing rules for 
deciding in all cases, what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in 
what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United 
States shall be divided or appropriated : of granting letters of marque and 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 609 

reprisal, in times of peace : appointing courts for the trial of piracies and fel- 
onies committed on the high seas, and establishing courts for receiving and 
determining finally appeals in all cases of captures ; provided, that no mem- 
ber of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort on 
appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting, or that hereafter may 
arise between two or more States concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or any 
other cause whatever ; which authority shall always be exercised in the man- 
ner following: whenever the legislative or executive authority or lawful agent 
of any State in controversy with another shall present a petition ta Congress, 
stating the matter in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall 
be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the 
other State in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the par- 
ties, by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint by joint con- 
sent commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determin- 
ing the matter in question ; but if they cannot agree, Congress shall name 
three persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such per- 
sons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, un- 
til the number shall be reduced to thirteen ; and from that number not less 
than seven nor more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the 
presence of Congress, be drawn out by lot ; and the persons whose names 
shall be so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to 
hear and finally detennine the controversy, so always as a major part of the 
judges, who shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination ; and if 
either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing 
reasons which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall refuse to 
strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each State, 
and the Secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or 
refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court to be ajipointed in the 
manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive ; and if any of the 
parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear, or 
defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce 
sentence or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive, the 
judgment or sentence, and other proceedings, being in either case transmitted 
to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the 
parties concerned : provided, that every commissioner, before he sits in judg- 
ment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the su- 
preme or superior court of the State, where the cause shall be tried, "well 
and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best 
of his judgment, without favour, affection, or hope of reward ;" provided 
also, that no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United 
States. 

All controversies concerning the private right of soil, claimed under differ- 
ent grants of two or more States, whose jurisdiction as they may respect such 
lands and the States which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants 
or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated anteced- 
ent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to 
the Congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, 
in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting ter- 
ritorial jurisdiction between different States. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and ex- 
clusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by 
their own authority, or by that of the respective States ; fixing the standard 

Cc2 



610 APPENDICES. 

of weights and measures throughout the United States : regulating the trade 
and managing all affairs with Indians not members of any of the States ; 
provided, that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not 
infringed or violated : establishing and regulating post-offices from one State 
to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on 
the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the ex- 
penses of the said office : appointing all officers of the land forces in the 
service of the United States, excepting regimental officers : appointing all 
the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the 
service of the United States : making rules for the government and regulation 
of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to appoint 
a committee to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated *' a Commit- 
tee of the States ;" and to consist of one delegate from each State, and to ap- 
point such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for man- 
aging the general affairs of the United States, under their direction : to ap- 
point one of their number to preside, provided that no person be allowed to 
serve in the office of President more than one year in any term of three 
years : to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service 
of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying 
the public expenses : to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United 
States, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the 
sums of money so borrowed or emitted : to build and equip a navy : to agree 
upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for 
its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in each State ; 
which requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the legislature of each 
State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, 
and equip them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States ; 
and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to 
the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in 
Congress assembled : but if the United States in Congress assembled, shall, 
on consideration of circumstances, judge proper that any State should not 
raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any 
other State should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, 
such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped, 
in the same manner as the quota of such State, unless the legislature of such 
State shall judge that such extra number cannot safely be spared out of the 
same ; in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip, as many 
of such extra number as they judge can safely be spared. And the officers 
and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appoint- 
ed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress as- 
sembled. 

The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor 
grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any 
treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor as- 
certain the sums and expenses necessary for the defence and welfare of the 
United States or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit 
of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of 
vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces 
to be raised, nor appoint a commander in chief of the army or navy, unless 
nine States assent to the same ; nor shall a question on any other point, ex- 
cept for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of 
a majority of the United States in Congress assembled. 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDEEATION. 611 

The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time 
within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period 
of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months ; and 
shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts 
thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judg- 
ment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State 
on any question shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any del- 
egate ; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request, 
shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as 
are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several States. 
. Art, 10. The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be au- 
thorized to execute in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress 
as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, 
shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with ; provided that 
no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the 
articles of confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United 
States assembled is requisite. 

Art. 11. Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the meas- 
ures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to, all the ad- 
vantages of this union : but no other colony shall be admitted into the same 
unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. 

Art. 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, debts contracted, by 
or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, 
in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as 
a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the 
said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. 

Art. 13. Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States 
in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by this confederation, are 
submitted to them. And the Articles of this confederation shall be inviola- 
bly observed by every State, and the union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any 
alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such altera- 
tion be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards con- 
firmed by the legislature of every State. 

And whereas it has pleased the Great Governor of the world to incline the 
hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of 
and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of confederation and perpetual 
union : Know ye. That we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power 
and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name 
and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and con- 
firm each and every of the said Articles of confederation and perpetual union, 
and all and singular the matters and things therein contained ; and we do 
further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, 
that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress 
assembled, on all questions which, by the said confederation, are submitted 
to them; and that the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the 
States we respectively represent; and that the union shall be perpetual. 

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, in Congress. Done 
at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, and 
in the third year of the independence of America. 

On the part and behalf of the State of New Hainpshire. 
JosiAH Bartlett, JohnWentwortHjJuu., August 8, 1778. 



612 APPENDICES. 

On the part and behalf o/ the State o/ Massachusetts Bay. 
John Hancock, Francis Dana, 

Samuel Adams, James Lovell, 

Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holten. 

On the part and in behalf of the State of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations. 

William Ellery, John Collins. 

Henry March ant, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Connecticut. 
Eoger Sherman, Titus Hosmer, 

Samuel Huntington, Andrew Adams. 

Oliver Wolcott, 

On the part and behalf of the State of New Yorlc. 
Jas. Duane, Wm. Duer, 

Era. Lewis, Gouv. Morris. 

On the part and in behalf of the State of New Jersey. 
Jno. Witherspoon, Nath. Scudder, Nov. 26, 1778. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Pennsylvania. 
RoBT. Morris, William Cling an, 

Daniel Roberdeau, Joseph Reed, 22d July, 1778. 

Jona. Bayard Smith, 

On the jmrt and behalf of the State of Delaware. 
Tho. M'Kean, Feb. 13, 1779, Nicholas Van Dyke. 

John Dickinson, May 5th, 1779, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Maryland. 
John Hanson, March 1, 1781, Daniel Carroll, March ], 1781. 

On the part and behafofthe State of Virginia. 
Richard Henry Lee, Jno. Harvie, 

John Banister, Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

Thomas Adams, 

On the part and behalf of the State of North Carolina. 
John Penn, July 21, 1778, Jno. Williams. 

Corns. Harnett, 

On the part and behalf of the State of South Carolina. 
Henry Laurens, Richard Hutson, 

William Henry Drayton, Thos. Heywood, jun. 

Jno. Mathews, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Georgia. 
Jno. Walton, 24th July, 1778. Edwd. Langworthy. 

Edwd. Telfair, 

Note.— From the circumstance of delegates from the same State having signed the Articles 
of confederation at different times, as appears by the dates, it is probable they affixed their 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 613 

mimes as they happened to be present in Congress, after they had been authorized by their 
constituents. 

The above Articles of confederation continued in force until the 4th day of March, 1T89, 
when the constitution of the United States took effect. 



c. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

PREAMBLE. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Of the Legislature. 

SECTION I. 

1. All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress of 
the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representa- 
tives. 

SECTION II. 

1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen 
every second year by the people of the several States : and the electors in 
each State shall have the quahfications requisite for electors of the most nu- 
merous branch of the State legislature. 

2. No person shall be a representative Avho shall not have attained to the 
age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he 
shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included within this union, according to their respective 
numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free 
persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration 
shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the 
United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such man- 
ner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not ex- 
ceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one rep- 
resentative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New 
Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three; Massachusetts, eight; Rhode 
Island, and Providence Plantations, one ; Connecticut, five ; New York, six ; 
New Jersey, four ; Pennsylvania, eight ; Delaware, one ; Maryland, six ; Vir- 
ginia, ten ; North Carolina, five ; South Carolina, five ; and Georgia, three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the ex- 
ecutive authority thei'eof shall issue writs of election to fill up such vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other 
oflScers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

SECTION III. 

1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from 



614 APPENDICES. 

each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years, and each senator 
shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first 
election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The 
seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the 
second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth, and of the 
third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen 
every second year ; and if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, 
during the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may 
make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, .which 
shall then fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of 
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Sen- 
ate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro 
tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the 
office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When 
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the 
President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside ; and no 
person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the mem- 
bers present. 

7. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than to re- 
moval from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, 
trust, or profit, under the United States ; but the party convicted shall, nev- 
ertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment 
according to law. 

SECTION IV. 

1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and rep- 
resentatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; but 
the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except 
as to the place of choosing senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meet- 
ing shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint 
a different day. 

SECTION V. 

1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifica- 
tions of its own members ; and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum 
to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may 
be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner 
and under such penalties as each House may provide. 

2. Each House may determine the rule of its proceedings, punish its mem- 
bers for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel 
a member. 

3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to 
time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require 
secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any 
question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the 
journal. 

4. Neither House during the Session of Congress shall, without the consent 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 615 

of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than 
that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

SECTION VI. 

1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for their 
services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United 
States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the 
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of 
their respective Houses, and in going to or returning from the same ; and for 
any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any 
other place. 

2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United 
States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have 
been increased, during such time ; and no person holding any office under 
the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance 
in office. 

SECTION VII. 

1. All Bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representa- 
tives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other 
Bills. 

2. Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the 
United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall return it, 
with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall 
enter the objection at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. 
If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the 
Bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by 
w^hich it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that 
House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses 
shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting 
for and against the Bill shall be entei-ed on the journal of each House respect- 
ively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days 
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall 
be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their 
adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

3. Eveiy order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives may be necessary (except a question of adjourn- 
ment), shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before 
the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by 
him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a Bill. 

SECTION VIII. 

The Congress shall have power — 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts 
and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States ; 
but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United 
States : 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes : 



616 APPENDICES. 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the 
subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States : 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix 
the standard of weights and measui-es : 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and cur- 
rent coin of the United States : 

7. To establish post offices and post roads : 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for lim- 
ited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries : 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court : 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, 
and offences against the law of nations : 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules 
concerning captures on land and water : 

12. To raise and support armies ; but no appropriation of money to that 
use shall be for a longer term than two years : 

13. To provide and maintain a navy : 

14-. To make rales for the government and regulation of the land and naval 
forces : 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions : 

1 6. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for 
governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United 
States, reserving to the States respectively the apjiointment of the officers and 
tlie authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by 
Congress : 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such dis- 
trict (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States 
and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United 
States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased, by the con- 
sent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection 
of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings : and, 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution the foregoing powers, and all other poAvers vested by this Constitu- 
tion in the government of the United States, or any department or officer 
thereof. 

SECTION IX. 

1 . The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now 
existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty 
may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each 
person, 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless 
when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. 

3. No Bill of attainder, or ex-post-facto law, shall be passed. 

4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to 
the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. No 
preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the 
ports of one State over those of anotlier ; nor shall vessels bound to or from 
one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 617 

G. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of ap- 
propriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the re- 
ceipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to 
time. 

7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person 
holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of 
Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind what- 
ever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. 

SECTION X. 

1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant 
lettei-s of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any- 
thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any Bill of 
attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts ; or 
grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or du- 
ties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for exe- 
cuting its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid 
by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the 
United States, and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control 
of Congress. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty 
on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agree- 
ment or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in 
wax-, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit 
of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Of the Executive. 

SECTION I. 

1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States 
of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, to- 
getlier with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as fol- 
lows : — 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may 
direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and rep- 
resentatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress ; but no senator 
or representative, or person holding any office of trust or profit under the 
United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

3. The electors shall meet in their i-espective States, and vote by ballot for 
two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State 
with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and 
of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed 
to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the 
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, 
and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest num- 
ber of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such 
a majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Represent- 
atives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if 
no person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said 



618 APPENDICES. 

House shall in like manner choose the President. But In choosing the Pres- 
ident, the votes shall be taken by States ; the representation from each State 
having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or 
members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall 
be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the 
person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be Vice-Pres- 
ident. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the 
Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President. 

4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors and the 
day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same through- 
out the United States. 

5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States 
at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office 
of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not 
have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident 
within the United States. 

6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resig- 
nation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the 
same shall devolve on the Vice-President ; and the Congress may by law pro- 
vide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the Pres- 
ident and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President: 
and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed or a 
President shall be elected. 

7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensa- 
tion, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for 
which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period 
any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following 
oath or affirmation. 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of 
President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

SECTION II. 

1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the 
United States and of the militia of the several States, when called into the 
actual service of the United States ; he may require the opinion in writing 
of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject 
relating to the duties of their respective offices ; and he shall have power to 
grant reprieves and pardons for oifences against the United States, except in 
cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur : and he 
shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall 
appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Su- 
preme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments 
are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law. 
But the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as 
they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads 
of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen 
during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire 
at the end of their next session. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 619 



SECTION III. 

1 . He shall, from time to time, give to Congress information of the state 
of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall 
judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene 
both Houses, or either of them ; and in case of disagreement between them, 
■with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time 
as he shall think pi'oper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public min- 
isters ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed ; and shall com- 
mission all the officers of the United States. 

SECTION IV. 

1. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, 
shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE in. 

Of the Judiciary. • 

SECTION I. 

1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme 
Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may, from time to time, order 
and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall 
hold theiv offices during good behaviour ; and shall, at stated times, receive 
for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their 
continuance in office. 

SECTION II. 

1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising 
under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassa- 
dors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and mari- 
time jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a pai-ty ; 
to controversies between two or more States ; between a State and citizens of 
another State ; between citizens of different States ; between citizens of the 
same State claiming lands under grants of different States ; and between a 
State, or the citizens thereof and foreign States, citizens or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, 
and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have 
original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme 
Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such ex- 
ceptions, and under such regulations as Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, 
and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been 
committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at 
such place or places as Congress may by law have directed. 

SECTION III. 

1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war 
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 
No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two wit- 
nesses to the same overt act, or confession in open court. 



620 APPENDICES. 

2. Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason ; but no 
attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except dur- 
ing the life of the person attainted. 

AETICLE IV. 

Miscellaneous. 

SECTION I. 

1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, rec- 
ords, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And Congress may, by 
general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceed- 
ings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

SECTION II. 

1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and im- 
munities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who 
shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the 
executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be re- 
moved to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labour in one State, under the laws there- 
of, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation there- 
in, be discharged from such seiwice or labour ; but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due. 

SECTION III. 

1 . New States may be admitted by Congress into this Union ; but no new 
State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, 
nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of 
States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well 
as of Congress. 

2. Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and 
regulations respecting the territory, or other property belonging to the United 
States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice 
any claims of the United States or of any particular State. 

SECTION IV. 

1. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this union a repub- 
lican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; 
and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legisla- 
ture cannot be convened), against domestic violence. 

AKTICLE V. 

Of Amendmenis. 

1 . Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, 
shall propose amendments to this Constitution ; or, on the application of the 
legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for pro- 
posing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of 
three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths there- 
of, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress ; 



i 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 621 

provided, that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eight, shall in any manner affect the first and fovu-th 
clauses in the ninth section of the first Article ; and that no State, without 
its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

Miscellaneous. 

1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption 
of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this 
Constitution, as under the confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, 
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the 
land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the 
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of 
the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of 
the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirm- 
ation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be re- 
quired as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII. 

Of the Ratification. 

1. The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 

Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States 
of America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed 
our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
President and Deputy from Virginia. 

T,T TT 7 • David Brearly, 

New Hampshire. William Patterson, 

John Langdon. Jonathan Dayton. 

Nicholas Gilman, _, , 

Pennsylvania, 

Massachusetts. Benjamin Franklin, 

Nathaniel Gorman, Thomas Mifflin, 

EuFus King. Robert Morris, 

, George Clymer, 

Connecticut. Thomas Fitzsimons, 

William Samuel Johnson, Jared Ingersoll, 

Roger Sherman. James Wilson, 

,^ , gouverneur mobris. 

New lork. 

Alexander Hamilton. Delaware. 

^_ ^ George Read, 

New .Jersey. Gunning Bedford, jun. , 

William Livingston, John Dickinson, 



1 



I 



C 310 88 • 



Crc -11534 



V -^^ ^^ 










t'i'^ r. ONC^ ^^. ^^ .,. '^_ 







; ^^..^^ /^K^- -^^n c^'' /^¥/;^ ^^.. .^"^.^^^^-.i 



•«^ A* « 1/ a . yO r 



•"°o 



V1 













O > 









4.° -•<?■. 


























.•^' "b. '^oTo^ ^0' -<j>^ •''"^- .^r 









'^_ 



;^ .r 



c^ 












